Is Lee the Best Diesel Engine Type?

When it comes to the passage of large distances at high speeds, diesel engines with higher compression ratios and combustion of the lean mixture provide them with such efficiency that the gas engine is currently unable to match. Well, at least, not without the help of a hybrid system.

But at the same time, the engine running on gas fuel is 15 percent more profitable than diesel in terms of economy. Not even close, is it? The reality is that in the future this will lead to a reduction in cars on a diesel engine. With tightening rules for the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, the diesel engine type gradually loses its advantages, and meanwhile, gas engines continue to improve.

Recently there has been a significant convergence of levels of efficiency between gasoline and diesel engines. While diesel engines will still have a slight advantage, the technological gap between them at the moment is about 10 years. Over the past ten years, once-exotic ways to improve engine efficiency, such as valve timing changes, direct fuel injection systems and turbocharging for spark-ignition engines have become commonplace. Of course, these technologies are not new, but gradual improvements in electronics and materials have brought them to the mainstream.

New developments of a gasoline engine with fuel compression ignition have great potential and are designed to dramatically improve the efficiency of gasoline and hybrid engines. At the heart of these developments, more efficient combustion of fuel is used. New technologies make it possible to achieve an improvement in the efficiency of a gasoline engine by 20 percent, while reducing harmful emissions to almost zero.

But do not assume that the diesel engine type has laid down and pretended to be dead. We should expect gradual improvements in the efficiency of diesel engines. There will not be the same jerk as when switching from sequential fuel injection to direct injection engines, but there are still advantages that will be visible in the near future.

In addition, there are other factors in this competition. It should be borne in mind that diesel fuel contains 14 percent more energy by volume than gasoline. This gives diesel engines a significant advantage in fuel economy, in contrast to thermal efficiency. Of course, everything will change if the spark-ignition engines switch to more high-calorie fuel. So this race is far from over.