Comments on: Diesel Exhaust and Heart Attacks

By: John

John — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 21:00:06 +0000

I commented last week on the Clinton-era Dept. of Energy program called PNGV–Program for New Generation of Vehicle–that spent roughly $1.2 billion on diesel-electric hybrids with the US Big Three. The Bush Administration killed the program in 2002 in favor of hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars. I’d love to know what happened to the technology developed in the 3-4 years the PNGV ran. GM is making diesel hybrids for large vehicles; here in Maryland we have diesel hybrid buses. GE has been making diesel-electric locomotives forever.

FYI, biofuels aren’t the only answer for cleaner emissions. Propane or LNG would be a great fuel (minus the GW effect…), it is used in Europe quite a lot.

By: kballs

kballs — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:50:58 +0000

Were the emissions from old diesels with no particulate filters or catalysts or were they old-school soot stacks? There's a big difference.

Regardless of new clean diesels coming to the US, we have PLENTY of nasty diesel exhaust from our old bus and truck fleets.

I guess we should all take aspirin before going out on the roads (either in a car or as a pedestrian).

By: Patrick

Patrick — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 11:37:42 +0000

Diesel exhaust can be made clean with an oxidation catalyst, SCR and DPF. Of course, this comes at a cost. The emission levels are lower than for gasoline, even PM.

Biodiesel does not make diesel exhaust clean. It only reduces the CO2-footprint. Biodiesel may be the most economic biofuel to make.

Diesel hybrids? The savings are more difficult to achieve. This will require very smart hybrid systems or plug-ins. Just a thought.

By: Editor

Editor — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:01:57 +0000

This article iw worth checking out:
http://www.hybridcars.com/related-technologies/diesel-hybrid-dreams.html

By: Zol Hooper

Zol Hooper — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:15:41 +0000

My guess is that the cost-benefit trade off of a diesel hybrid is not attractive. Supposing that each technology costs the same and adds exactly 10 MPG to a given car, unrealistic I know, then the marginal benefit of going from 30 MPG to 40 is not as much as that of going from 20 MPG to 30, but the cost of using both technologies versus just one would be double.

It could be that the cost of diesel hybrids approaches the cost of pure electric cars closely enough so as to make them an unappealing option, given that an electric car would be still much more efficient than a diesel hybrid. But again, that's just my guess given that we don't see them in use; it could be that diesel hybrids are a project under development as we speak.

By: Zol Hooper

Zol Hooper — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:01:46 +0000

What the study does not mention is that U.S. emission standards for diesel are considerably stricter than European standards. In fact that’s a major reason why there aren’t more choices of diesel vehicles here. Also, considering the progress made in generating bio-diesel from algae and the ability of diesel engines to run unmodified on bio-diesel, I think it makes a lot of sense to develop diesel cars to sell in the U.S.

By: FInnK

FInnK — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:14:23 +0000

I cant see why it wouldnt be possible to build a hybrid diesel car. Such a car would use Diesel insted of gasoline as fuel and would be more fuel efficient and have lover emissions than both a normal gasoline hybrid car and a normal diesel car.