Diesel Engines in Cars to be banned in Europe. !

[clockmanFRA]

Hi Guys, a big ask Please.

As I get older I am constantly asked for my opinions on Saving the planet, especially as we here in Normandy, France, have actively gone the sustainability route.

For us its Simplicity, Robustness and cost effectiveness with our Wind turbines, Solar Trackers, Photovoltaic panels, OzInverters, Passive House standards of insulation, minimal resources building techniques etc etc.

And we want to be a normal modern domestic dwelling and show what can be done with a normal House.

We have been at it now for over 15 years, with a lot of hard work and advice from good folk from around the World and assistance from World wide RE Forums like here on Fieldines. (thanks guys).

Because we do ! , folk in the wider community are starting to listen and ask.

Now with RE, Insulation, engineering, building etc, I feel reasonably confident in answering most questions.

However, actual Transportation from A to B is a mute subject as there is a lot of Hype and  misinformation and marketing hype.

 If I had the financial recourses then I would go for the humble electric Nissan Leaf, as its reasonable roomy inside, even for a couple of sheep, Good well tested Panasonic battery Cells, and its a well proven design. Would be nicer if it had a simple gearbox with neutral for drifting along when on a downward gradient.  However for me personally I would get a second battery pack in the boot/trunk to give me that extra mileage.

Charging the battery for us would be done in the day time from our PV, hence the swap out with a second battery pack.

Here in Europe there is push from the government 'Fluffy Bunnies' to have a all Electric mode of Transportation as quick as possible , and at the present there are a few,  2 or 3, charging points in each local town.
Just think that if every household has to charge their car each night with 65Kw from the Grid, is there really sufficient local electrical infrastructure and generation to support every household drawing that kind of electrical Power.

Now, diesel engines and the 'Fluffy Bunny' hatred of diesel engines in Cars in Europe.  And as that young 16 year old Greta says, there is some serious misinformation going on.
 
Sadly my own experiences of diesel engines is in the past with industrial engines, using vegetable recycled oil etc,  and now my own 6 year old Toyota Avensis Diesel Car. And a few years ago making a test structure machine for the removal of particulates from diesel engines by creating an electrical field/corona around the each actual injector. ( I was asked to make the whole machine by a PHD student from Manchester in collaboration with a high tech company from Cambridge UK. Last I heard that the student got stiffed and the Cambridge company sold the patents rights for loads of money to a petroleum company who have sat on the concept).


So I am asking the bright sparks here for words of advice on modern day diesel engines in cars.

Could we go the Vegetable oil route?  Pros and Cons?

My Toyota shows very low emissions  each year when tested, so what's the issue. ?

Can we make the modern diesel engine more friendly. ?

Any advice would be most helpful.

Thank you.



 

[TechAdmin]

I don't post much but this one is something I can surely comment on...
I hate all this "petrol/diesel is bad" thing, it's so incredibly exxagerated it's not even funny... The most recent cars pollute way, WAY less than older ones (new Euro 4/5 laws), which extends to diesel engines too. What really screws us over are the things that aren't even remotely close to being regulated - what I mean by this is big ships and planes. I live in a city which has a big port, have you ever seen the big luxury cruises exhausts on top? They smoke like 10 trucks combined, and they never *ever* stop because it's what powers their generators.
Planes it goes without saying they burn an insane amount of fuel for obvious reasons, but I'm not quite sure how much of that is "checked" to be somewhat environmentally friendly.
What really screws us over, however, is one big thing - China. China is still on COAL, anywhere on the net from many sources you will find that China has an absolutely insane amount of coal production/usage, more than the rest of the world combined. They don't follow the Kyoto protocol (even though they supposedly "agreed" as far as I know?) and their emissions are at an all-time high thanks to their industries which make just about everything you can think of (made in China everywhere).
Cars and small transports are just a small fraction of what the air pollution comes from, and reminds me of the stupidity of an image that was posted here somewhere, a generator to recharge an electric car... Towed by a diesel car. That's some 200IQ right there
Humanity lately is just about mass media and focusing the attention on one small detail, while missing the big culprit that is standing in front of their eyes.

So in the end for sure getting the most out of renewable sources is great, but banning diesel won't help with emissions for the most part.

[electrondady1]

this entire world trade empire is built to maximize  consumption.
the whole idea of digging up raw materials one place on earth and shipping those raw materials around the world to china, creating products there in a most polluting manner and then shipping those products back around the world . its like a trick is being played on us. just the old packaging the products come in is a huge problem to deal with. still they are shipping used plastic to desperate places to be partially recycled  or burned. now the latest political coup in Bolivia, they just happen to have the largest lithium deposit in the world.   

[richhagen]

The energy density of batteries remains much lower than that of hydrocarbon fuels.  Charging an electric vehicle takes a multiple of the amount of time as does fueling a diesel of gasoline powered vehicle.  Additionally the infrastructure for liquid hydrocarbon fuels exists, whereas as the OP alluded to, the electric infrastructure would have to be built much more robustly to handle most vehicles being powered by batteries recharged from the grid. 
Bio-diesel is being added to diesel in the U.S. and Ethanol to gasoline.  We may go all electric one day, but I suspect there will be an increasing percentage of our hydrocarbon fuels that come from renewable sources and also eventually where the hydrocarbon fuels are used in a manner analogous to batteries where the energy content they contain was put in from other energy sources and the hydrocarbons are merely the carriers of that energy. 
As for vegetable oil, it may be useful in some parts of the World, but it has a major drawback in colder climates where I am at as it could not be used for large parts of the year without preheating the fuel.  Rich

[clockmanFRA]

Thanks so far guys for your useful comments.

Keep them coming please.

[dnix71]

Asia uses mopeds/motorcycles more than cars. Those and bicycles are the way to go. Battery powered transport is a rich person's toy, and not efficient, either, when you consider the power generation and infrastructure to support them.

Even in the socialist paradise of Cuba, the state and private persons use petrol instead of solar.

https://www.quora.com/Why-doesnt-the-whole-world-use-solar-power-1   There is a long answer here about using solar and why it is technically impossible (not enough silver/money/storage/just plain sunshine).

As a third major issue, we are facing replacement. Imagine you install one billion solar panels, with a lifetime of 40 years (very high). This means, over the course of those forty years, every single one of them must be replaced. That means you have to replace almost 70.000 solar panels every single day for the remaining time of civilization. Keep in mind, however, that one billion solar panels is not nearly enough for a medium sized country, because of the capacity factor mentioned above.

[MattM]

The race for renewables has always been a rich person's game.  The truth is we keep extending use as more generation capacity becomes available.  At what point do we consider it energy growth rather than simply as a renewable?

[JW]

I remember when my dad and I were talking about this years ago, I brought up that algae is a resource to make up diesel his reply to me was, if that were true thats would be doing it now..

I have seen many commercials that are promoting that are on television here by the big oil, but it can be micro managed anyway...

JW