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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries
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To: elmatador who wrote (34046)5/20/2003 2:44:56 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (1) of 74559
 
ElM, you are talking my lingo! Diesel, petrol and stuff. Yum. Diesels are thermodynamically efficient because of the high compression ratio. Spark ignition engines are lower compression, to avoid knock [the out of control ignition of the petrol] and therefore doomed to lower efficiency.

But they have lower pressures so less noise. Their fuel is cleaner burning, but that can be solved for diesels by fuel and engine and exhaust designs.

Then, there's the question of price. Diesel isn't inherently cheaper than petrol, it's just a supply and demand balance that makes it so. It's more economic to crack heavy ends into petrol because that sells for a higher price because that's what people buy.

All the fuels are just calories. How to use them is the problem and decides which are used.

Diesel is inherently better in one way - more energy fits into a given space because it's got 10% higher density than petrol, which is no big deal but every bit helps when people decide what technologies to use.

If diesel engines can be made quiet, clean, powerful, quick and cheap, then they'll people will use those instead of petrol engines. But there has been a century of effort and without tax advantages, diesel has difficulty competing in the city commuter and Mum around town market.

Mqurice
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