Posted on 12/30/2007 8:51:21 AM PST by saganite
Merging with northbound traffic on Interstate 75 just outside Auburn Hills, Mich., I punch the accelerator, quickly swing left into the passing lane and pull forcefully ahead of the cars around me. In any other ride, on any other gray morning, itd be just another Interstate moment. But this rush hour, Im behind the wheel of a preproduction 2009 Volkswagen Jetta, which is powered by a 2.0-liter turbo-charged, direct-injected diesel engine that, even as I leave the speed limit in tatters, is averaging nearly 50 mpg. Equally important, whats coming out of the tailpipe is no dirtier than the emissions from the 35-mpg econoboxes I can now see in my rearview mirror. Speed, fuel efficiency and minimal emissions? These arent characteristics usually associated with diesel-powered vehicles. But they will be.
Most Americans have a bad impression of diesel cars. We think of them as loud, hard to start and foul-smelling. We sneer at them for lacking the get-up-and-go of their gasoline-powered cousins. And we dislike them for their perceived environmental sins, chiefly the polluting brew of sulfur and nitrogen compounds that they emit into the atmosphere. All those complaints were fair a generation ago, when the twin energy crises of the 1970s propelled diesels into national popularity and kept them there for a decade. Back then, many drivers ignored diesels faults, or were unaware of them, because diesel cars ran 30 percent farther on a gallon of fuel than similar gasoline-powered cars. It felt savvy to buy a diesel, even daring. Then fuel prices dropped in the mid-1980s, and drivers abandoned their clattering, odoriferous fuel sippers. They went back to gasoline.
Today, diesel powertrains are on the map again, for both car manufacturers and efficiency-minded drivers. The technology could be here to stay, even if fuel prices (improbably) decline. .
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Nevada is one of those states that will come down on you if they think you haven’t paid taxes on your road fuel. They’ve even written tickets on construction backhoes who have made a non-essential stop while roading the hoe from site to site.
The best way to not get a ticket while burning bio-fuels in a diesel is to keep quiet. As long as it doesn’t have red dye in the fuel, they have no reason to get nosy — unless you’ve got bumper stickers advertising use of bio-fuels like so many of these bio-diesel folks do.
As in so many cases, what the government doesn’t know won’t hurt me. ;-)
I own some CREE right now. They’re in North Carolina and have been converting some town street lighting to LED and seem to have a plan to reduce the price of residential lighting.
D-B has a lot of experience with building diesel/electric hybrids - remember all those U-boats in WWII were diesel/electric hybrids.
One of my biggest arguments against the enviros is that by un-doing the industrial revolution, they will make slavery and serfdom economically viable again. From now on when you see an enviro, think of John C. Calhoun and Simon Legree.
Yes, but the process is simpler. You can skip the thermal-cracking process that is used to convert diesel grade petroleum feedstock into gasoline feedstock.
In a diesel engine the stoichiometry is controlled by the fuel injectors, not the air intake.
yes they ahve already done so
3.25 a gallon. IDIOTS!
We had a little Perkins four-banger one time that wouldn’t shut down from idle; had to go get an old rubber tire boot and stuff it in the air intake to kill it.
Begs tne Question; Why can’t we do it here???
That’s a great early-adopter application. Anything with a high labor cost to replace. They’re already in almost all the traffic lights around here.
I bet entry lobby lighting for large commercial and public buildings (high ceilings) will be next for large scale adoption.
Well said
You can not compress a Wankel; the most you get is about 12 to 1 if you're lucky. The design of the rotor does not allow high compression. The engineers barely got it to seal right for the gasoline use.
The Diesels need at least a 22 to 1 ratio to fire up for which the Wankel's are not up to. OTOH the Wankel"s are Rev happy!...good for racing!
In terms of fuel yes. But diesel engines, especially super charged ones, bear a lot more resemblance to a jet engine than most would think. Both depend on compression-induced combustion of the same basic fuel...one just uses reciprocating pistons, the other doesn’t. Somebody else’s technical description is above for your enlightenment.
Ash pan?...what are you talking about?...I am a Cummins Diesel Certified and I never heard of an "ash pan" ever as a part of a Diesel set up. Than again it could be some sort of a VW emissions set up, which does not apply to everyone in Diesel business!
Maybe so, but tell that to Curtis Wright and John Deere who got it to burn Diesel for the S.C.O.R.E. program utilizing Direct Injection.
The point is you do not have to have a true Diesel cycle to burn a Diesel type fuel and be Omnivorous.
Again think about it, here is an engine that has low pumping losses, can be made to run without a Throttle Plate and works well with a Turbocharger (and even Turbo-Compounding) and can be made Omnivorous via Direct Injection.
Again sounds like the perfect small sized high power density engine to mate with a generator for a Series Hybrid. I think the goal should be for better chassis packaging an engine-generator that is no more obtrusive than a golf bag via the Wankel. Think about how powerful that is in terms of utilizing interior space and reduction in vehicle mass for auto designers.
Tail, you make a lot of sense, would you please send some of that to Detroit please...Maybe just maybe they will start making cars people want to buy!
Diesel Particulate Filter..
We call them ash pans..because thats what they really are in a way.
And dont come and tell me Cummins hasnt got them now.
THat’s a start.
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