Diesel Fuel

Fuel prices have bounded ahead in the last few months, so much so that most of us can’t keep up with how much it costs to fill our fuel tanks from day to day.

This is true of both gasoline and diesel fuel. The price of diesel in some countries is even higher then petrol at the pump. So why would you choose a diesel engine over a petrol engine.

Well only certain vehicles are set up to operate on diesel fuel. When it comes to light and heavy trucks and Rv’s diesel is the preferred fuel. It has it’s own advantages such as more pulling power for less energy used. In general diesel engines have more longevity and are reported to be cheaper to run over a given distance than petrol.

I own both types of vehicles and can say this is true. I have a five cylinder diesel powered Mercedes 280 and can vouch for the fact that it is more fuel efficient than the petrol version 280 that I owned previously. However it is less responsive in acceleration but both cars have a similar cruising speed.

It is almost a universal thing now that most equipment such as heavy trucks and tractors type equipment run on diesel. You would find it very hard to find a semi that runs on petrol, and I would say you would probably not find one. Most vehicles that do operate with diesel fuel get better gas mileage than other types of vehicles though. They also allow the engine to run cleaner and that often means that the vehicle is going to last much longer.

You won’t have as much wear and tear in the engine so your vehicle could last five or ten years longer than if you aren’t using diesel fuel. It is an established fact that diesel fuel burns much cleaner than petrol, so there is less emission. This is a consideration given the millions of vehicles being used daily and the concern with green house gas emission. As for availability, diesel is as readily available as petrol and all service stations. This is convenient given that 50 billion gallons of diesel fuel are consumed annually in the United States, and rising each year.

That doesn’t count the emerging nations now using fossil fuel, such as India and China. Interesting enough there are individuals experimenting with synthetic diesel fuel made from such strange things as sewage remains, food scraps and discarded vegetable oil. Hard evidence is available that some of these alternatives are working.

MR (ed) Waterandbiofuels.com