Could Diesels Be Poised for a US Comeback?

With cafe standards set to hit 54 mpg in 2025, I'd say diesel turbo hybrids will be everywhere....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_sKmTkNtZ8

...first drive...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL4anmWOe8k

That could be bad news if the diesel fuels are not cleaned up.

Diesel fuel for automotive use in the US has been low-sulfur ('sweet') for years now, from 1970, if memory serves from reading the informational sticker on the diesel pumps.

Low-sulfur diesel is MANDATED for all post-1970 diesel engines, and RECOMMENDED for all pre-1970 diesels.

I believe the origin of high-sulfur diesel was due to the limited oil supply, and the difficulty in making gasoline from anything other than 'light, sweet' crude back then. All 'light, sweet' was earmarked for gasoline, leaving the 'less desirable' heavy and 'sour' (high-sulfur) crude for making diesel fuel, since diesel engines aren't picky. Diesels can run off salad oil and lard if the motor and the 'fuel' are hot enough.

I can not give you a chemical analysis, but every time a turbo-diesel truck launches in front of me I become incapacitated with an asthma attack.

It's the only substance that brings on an attack for me with such magnitude.

I can't imagine that crap is much good for anyone else, too. The good news is the number of vehicles using diesel and a turbocharger is relatively low - at this time and date.

Ah, you mean 'cleaned up' as in 'remove all the OTHER crap that is in the gunk they call diesel fuel,' not just 'cut down on the acid-rain-producing chemicals.'

That's going to be a challenge, because cleaning out all that crap is going to cost even more than just removing the sulfur.

I know that, in theory, a diesel engine runs cleaner than a gasoline engine because the diesel has a slower, more even burn of the fuel, but that's when using the same fuel in both (only change one variable to keep the experiment relevant). Once the Corporate world found out that diesels could run on what was considered 'crap oil,' the CEOs and CFOs mandated the cheapest, crappiest, dirtiest fuel possible for the trucks. After all, the boardroom smelled of sunshine and roses no matter what the highways reeked of.

We need to get these corporations interested in something other than sheer greedy profit (and suppressing women's health care rights for more profit, under the guise of 'religious objection').

I have a 2013 Jayco Seneca RV with a Freightliner chassis powered by a Cummins 6.7L turbo diesel. The thing runs so clean you can wipe your finger in the exhaust pipe and come back clean. We have over 16,000 miles on it now. The ISB engine puts out 325 horsepower and 800 ft-lbs of torque. One of the reasons it runs clean is that ultra-low sulfur diesel is mandated for this engine, it uses DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) which is a urea based fluid used to clean up the nitrates of oxygen and it has a particulate filter.

If you were to stand by the exhaust when it is running, you can't even tell it's diesel exhaust. Periodically it regenerates the particulate filter where it injects extra fuel into the exhaust stream raising the exhaust gas temperature to 1600 degrees F which burns out all the accumulated carbon.

I have always hated to follow a diesel because of the noxious fumes and it reminds me of the smells of a signal node on a UFL exercise on some God foresaken frozen hilltop with gelling diesel fuel and stalling generators. But I digress.

That's a torque monster!

Yeah, the Cummins is one nice motor. Accelerates very nicely from a stop. Crappy top speed pushing a big box through the air, but hey, that's what you get with a diesel. Max RPM, I won't call it redline, is about 2500 to 2700 RPM.

Hey Be Carefull there ol man. 1. other than particulates Diesel IS CLEANER than gasoline. It emits far less CO than does a gasoline engine. So much less that a catalictic converter was not used or needed until recently to convert CO to CO2. Other pollutants are less such as NO etc.. In Short it is Not always the black smoke that you used to see and in some older rigs still see in Diesel Engines that are deadly. The bad stuff is the stuff you do not see. It is a terrible Shame but the truth is there is almost 3 times the amount of energy in 1 gallon of diesel than in 1 gallon of gasoline. But the current design of street legal diesel engines do not and can not take advantage of this fact. Think about it. If all cars had engines that were NOT street leagla such as John Deere for example where you DO get the extra energy that diesel fuel has in it is used we would cut use by 2/3. But due to these clean air laws that are some good but most are total BS do not allow for it. All of my cars and trucks are diesel. And guess what. I get a good deal on Walnut oil and that is mostly what is in the tank and getting me around. 2. The New laws require that the cars/trucks have filters on the exhaust that burns the soot particles. as the filter starts to get too much soot collected a very hot fire is started in the filter to burn the soot into almost harmless ash that is then released into the air. 3. I bet if I parked a new VW diesel next to the same model of VW Gas engine and we start them both that you will not be able to tell what one is diesel. With the filter and the new ways of dampening the sounds of a diesel engins and with the filters everyone does not beleave that it is a diesel. Just go to a VW reseller or someone that has a newer one 2012 or later. Then if possible test drive a gas and then a diesel. Especilay if there are some steep hills to go over. If there is you will find the diesel does NOT in most cases have to shift down and up and down and up lie the gas engines. And since I am burning walnut oil I have a zero carbon footprint. Most of the electric cars are MOSTLY burning coal ff you track where the power is coming from. So They are cleaned up. Cesare

Whatever gives me serious respiratory problems is the problem in my mind (or lungs).

You can bring on all the stats you want, but if it still is hazardous to health it is a bad thing.

Suicide doors again?

No those aren't door handles, the're rear view camera's that have replaced the mirrors....VW XL 1 turbo diesel hybrid...

You can see the video screen built into the doors below...

Wait, so instead of looking out the window at the mirror (where you can still see the road beyond the mirror's edge), you're looking down at your elbow to see behind you?

Send the design back to the shop and tell the guys to lay off the Schnapps when they're on the clock.

If you're going to 'relocate' the area to look at for the rear view, change it to the lower corners of the windshield, that way you're still seeing the road ahead (which is flying at you at Autobahn speeds) when you're checking behind you.

Also, the 80's called, they want their gull-wing doors back.

...

(huh? what?)

Apparently, they also want this joke back too.

As long as they have diesel emissions standards in place they will never see those MPG numbers.

Heck our 2015 diesel pickup in our company work fleet get the same fuel mileage as the gassers but spend 10x more time and money in the shop for emissions systems related breakdowns.

Oh, well. That makes it all right, then.