Diesel Engine Efficiency

An internal combustion engine is one of the most important inventions passed down from the Industrial Revolution. The diesel engine efficiency percentage makes it a very popular choice for many vehicles around the world. Now when we talk about the efficiency of a diesel engine, or any internal combustion engine for that matter, it refers to the rate of conversion of the thermal energy (the potential energy) into kinetic energy, or pulling power. The greater the efficiency of an engine, the more kinetic energy it will be able to produce, and thus it will perform greater work.

A diesel engine works in a similar manner to the petrol engine, and this is powered by the ignition of small amounts of the fuel. Unlike a petrol or gasoline engine, a diesel engine is not ignited by a spark plug, on the other hand it is the heat produced by the compression of the fuel that causes this ignition. A German engineer called Rudolf Diesel made the diesel engine in 1892, and out of all the internal combustion engines around, diesel engine efficiency is the highest. The reason for this high diesel engine efficiency percentage is the very high compression ratio of the fuel before it gets ignited.

A gasoline engine usually compresses the mixture at the ratio of 8:1 to 12:1, but a diesel engine's compression ratio is from 14:1 to 25:1. Also, there is no carburetor in a diesel engine vis-a-vis the gasoline engine. The fuel is directly and purely transported to the combustion chamber, and these engines are therefore known as Direct Injection (DI) engines.

Importance of Fuel Efficiency
The most elemental advantage of higher fuel economy is lower costs. The higher the efficiency of an engine, the lesser fuel it will require to do a certain type of work. This obviously works out cheaper for the user. Diesel engines used for industrial purposes require the diesel in large quantities to carry out very heavy-duty work, and even a slight increase in fuel efficiency and a slight fall in the cost can make a large difference for the business.

In the case of vehicles using diesel engines for transportation purposes, the diesel engine efficiency is calculated as a ratio of the total distance that can be covered (miles or kilometers) with a fixed amount of the fuel (per gallon or liter). The greater the distance covered, the higher the diesel engine efficiency. The efficiency of a diesel engine does not simply stem just from the rate of combustion or the ratio of combustion material. Various other factors of the vehicle also play a part in determining the diesel fuel efficiency. Some of these factors are as follows.

• Engine properties of the car.
• Weight of the vehicle.
• Rolling resistance of the vehicle.
• Body drag of the vehicle.

As a result of dependency on these factors, a newer car will display higher diesel engine efficiency. As the vehicle gets older and is used more often, the thermal efficiency rate keeps falling down.

Improve Diesel Engine Efficiency
One revolutionary way of increasing diesel engine efficiency is by using ethanol mixed with water in the diesel engine. This cannot be added to the fuel directly, so it cannot really be used in vehicles as such. But diesel engines that are used for other purposes can make use of this trick to get better thermal efficiency from diesel engines. The combination can be mixed with the diesel only at the time of combustion though, so two separate lines may be required. This mixture reduces emissions, cools down the engine faster, and most importantly, increases the diesel engine efficiency.

The only downside with diesel powered vehicles are the increased amount of emissions that they produce. For this very reason the following five states in the United States have prohibited the sale of diesel vehicles - California, New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. Despite this, diesel powered vehicles are quite popular and they are known to give more miles per gallon in comparison with the regular fueled vehicles. The cost of these diesel powered vehicles is just marginally more than their gasoline powered alternatives.

The higher efficiency of a diesel engine certainly makes it a good choice of engines for carrying out a multitude of jobs. Various studies and experiments are also being carried out in order to reduce the amount of harmful emissions produced by these engines. Despite these emissions, the diesel engine efficiency alone is enough to sustain its importance and value.