Search Results

In this paper, we present the results of a series of experiments to determine the exhaust particulate size distributions from a number of diesel, gasoline and compressed natural gas (CNG) fuelled vehicles. The results show that all three types of vehicle produce significant populations of particulates under certain operating conditions. Particulates produced by gasoline and CNG engines tend to be smaller than for diesel engines. At low loads, there is a significant particulate distribution for diesel engines but much lower particulate numbers for both gasoline and CNG vehicles. Under these conditions, the gasoline particulate distribution has little structure but the CNG distribution is clearly bimodal. At higher loads, the number of particulates produced by diesel vehicles increases by an order of magnitude from idle and both the CNG and gasoline distributions are comparable in peak height. The diesel vehicle produces a much larger particulate volume than gasoline or CNG.

Historically, fuel cost conscious customers have tended to purchase diesel passenger cars. However, with increasing competition from alternative fuels and lean burn and direct injection gasoline fuelled engines, diesel engined vehicles currently face tough challenges from the point of fuel economy and emissions. In gasoline engines, low viscosity friction modified oils have demonstrated their potential for reducing internal engine friction and thus improving fuel economy, without adversely effecting engine durability. These fuel economy improvements have led to the introduction of such a low viscosity friction modified 5W-30 oil as the initial and service fill for the majority of Ford products sold in Europe. The trend towards even lower viscosities continues. To assess the potential benefits and issues of moving to 5W-20 in diesel engines, a short pilot study has been conducted using a Ford 1.8l direct injection diesel engine.