Diesel engines can deliver extra power compared to any gas engines invented including hybrids which relies on the combination of gas engine and electric motor. Diesel engines are simple to operate and are known to produce higher torque and fuel efficiency which 30%-40 % higher than gas engines. Hybrid might deliver more mileage but the developed pulling torque of diesel engine is unequal. This is attributed to high compression of diesel which is 3-4 times that of gasoline engines.



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In 2006, a German auto maker unveiled a 2 cylinder turbo diesel car that developed 20 hp with a fuel rating of 157 mpg. This is unheard of on any fuel rating produced by hybrid cars. The car also can seat 4 passengers.

In the first oil crisis of 1970s, a few diesel cars appeared in North America and it was a disaster. Those cars were noisy, very slow and emit lots of black smokes. The fuel injection was based on a single fuel pump driven by the front camshaft gear and hard to control. This resulted in over fueling which has 2 devastating effect: black smoke and detonation since the engine cannot burn all the fuel. Furthermore, because the fuel injector timing is not based on specific load and rpm, it resulted in poor acceleration.

A better fuel management must be found to resolve this problem.

With advances in gasoline electronic fuel injection management, it was also adopted for diesel engine. One of them is the use of electronic common rail fuel distribution system. Using a solenoid for each cylinder coming from the common rail, fuel can be better managed since the engine computer can control the solenoid. This made combustion complete and eliminated the excess fuel that was causing poor acceleration and gas emission. A new turbo charger technology was also added to get more exhaust air at lower rpm. With these 2 additions, the new diesel engines run quieter in various rpm loads.

Although diesel fuel has a higher energy per-liter content compared to the same liter of gasoline, it has 15% more greenhouse gas emissions. This can be blame on sulfur which is added to diesel fuel for lubrication purposes. Sulfur also cause the formation of particulate matter which is a miniature carbon like particles formed after combustion. When breathe into our lungs, this particulates are hazardous to our health. To remedy this, a double air filtering system is added to the engine so the particles can be collected and recycled back to the combustion chamber. This eliminates pollution and made the engine run more efficient. Finally, since diesel engines are also known to produce Nitrogen oxides which cause acid rain, an exhaust gas recirculation (egr) system was also added.

Overall, the performance of the new diesel powered cars is very encouraging. On a test conducted on VW TDI engine recently, it showed one of the best mileage ratings for engine performance. Compared to hybrid engines, diesel engine is not complicated and cheaper to operate. This was made possible because of the innovations in electronic fuel injections which made it reduced emissions to help our environment. If you want to save money on gas bills and have a strong reliable engine, diesel engines might be the answer we are looking for.