One happy couple shares their experience of switching from dirty oil to, well, dirty oil – but of the vegetable kind.

Diesel engine can run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants, which gives the grease two happy solutions: it prevents it from clogging up sewerage and powers a vehicle with fewer emissions. (more…)

Most people are familiar with automobile air emissions. Perhaps one day there will only be electric cars and no car air emissions. But there are many on other engines in use by commercial and industrial operations that may cause air emissions. In general these are called reciprocating internal combustion engines, or RICE.

On February 17, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule that will further reduce emissions of toxic air pollutants from existing diesel powered stationary reciprocating internal combustion engines.

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The EPA says in a report to Congress that the Clean Diesel Program is working as planned. The program, funded at $50 million last year, allowed EPA to fund the purchase or retrofitting of 14,000 diesel-powered vehicles and pieces of equipment, reducing the potential for respiratory illnesses and saving money in communities nationwide.

The resulting benefits from the program include:

• reducing 46,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, a key contributor to elevated smog levels, and 2,200 tons of particulate matter over the lifetime of diesel vehicles
• conserving 3.2.million gallons of fuel annually under the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program, which saves operators $8 million annually
• generating public health benefits between $500 million to $1.4 billion

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American cars with turbochargers are currently few and far between, but that may soon be changing. While a significant and sustained increase in the price of fuel would greatly boost demand for turbochargers, auto manufacturers’ need to comply with carbon emissions and fuel economy targets will be the primary drivers of the domestic turbocharger market. When compared with cars with similar horsepower, those with turbocharged smaller engines can reduce emissions by 20 to 40 percent, and can increase fuel economy by 15 to 20 percent.

As is often the case, the U.S. lags Europe in adoption of this technology, partly because it has primarily been used with diesel engines. Turbochargers are now used in about half of all European cars. By comparison, U.S. penetration is at just five percent.

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The combination of electric motors and diesel engines has worked well in locomotives and heavy trucks for years, but carmakers haven’t been successful in getting beyond the concept car stage for light duty vehicles. Five years after I started writing about the potential for diesel hybrids, the passenger vehicle market is still relatively quiet — but that at last may change.

The premium paid for diesel engines and additional cost of an electric motor has scared off auto manufacturers. However, the two powertrains have compelling complementary performance characteristics. For city driving, electric motors (powered by batteries that recapture energy from frequent braking) provide needed acceleration. Diesel engines thrive in comparison to gasoline engines when hauling heavy loads and maintaining highway speeds.

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