TFL JUL
17
WITH GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS AROUND EMISSIONS
, and the associated challenges
to decrease the effects of particulate matter, there has been a surge of advances around
purifying fuel, or, at the least, lessening the impact of impurities on humans and engines alike.
Biofuel is being held aloft as the emissions elixir, with Truck OEMs going toe-to-toe in
an effort to produce engines that not only emit lower Nox and CO
2
gases, but also don’t
jeopardise vehicle efficiencies.
Overview
Because biofuels are renewable, their sources can be regrown. Advanced biofuels can also
offer environmental benefits such as lower carbon emissions and lower sulphur, compared
with first-generation biofuels and conventional petroleum-based fuels.
From food crops such as corn and sugar, ethanol is produced. There is no excess or ‘waste’
ethanol, so produce it , crops need to be grown specifically, which can be an energy, water,
and land use intensive process.
On the other hand, vegetable oil, is used extensively by the food preparation industry, but there is
waste from the process, so vast amounts of vegetable oil would be discarded if not used for fuel.
While this is great for the biofuel pundits, the industry has its naysayers who argue that
crops and arable land should rather be used to feed the starving masses. Given the demand
for global energy, tens of millions of tons of biomass are required annually to produce
enough fuel to make a difference, putting significant areas of land under biomass crops.
The costs of cultivating, harvesting and transporting biomass is high, and large-scale
production must be economical to be viable. To enable market acceptance, advanced biofuels
must be compatible with existing infrastructure and the vehicles that it is intended to power.
Some claim that biodiesel releases almost as much pollutant as petrol. In most categories,
however, including particulate matter, long-chain hydrocarbons, ozone, and carbon
monoxide, biodiesel has consistently been shown to range from lower to substantially lower
in emissions. Nevertheless, in some tests (but not all), it has been shown to be higher in
nitrous oxides, which is obviously not a good thing. While biodiesel is much better than
petrol overall, it appears that it is not perfect.
There also seem to be potential problems when using it in vehicles. Biodiesel blends can
show an increase in water separation and fuel foaming, compared to pure fossil fuels. In
addition, blending with low-stability biodiesel can lead to fuel system problems, such as
higher levels of injector deposits and corrosion arising from the generation of low molecular
weight acids.
In addition, advanced direct injection engines may lose significant power when poor quality
biodiesel blends are used.
It is also claimed that it releases equally as much CO
2
into the atmosphere as fossil fuel.
So what do the OEMs say?
The
Volvo Group
products are almost exclusively driven by fossil diesel fuel. For many
years the company has tried to break this dependency on this source of fuel and to increase
the use of renewable fuels. Thus, it is consistently developing and offering a number of
Is
the answer?
Getting away from the
image of belching black
clouds of exhaust gas has
been the aim of every
manufacturer since the
planet became aware of the
hole in the ozone layer and
pollution in general.
going green
