Still smoking

Engine companies have been up against their toughest challenge to date as new regulations come in to force.
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Elsewhere in the world, notably in Europe this technology has been wholeheartedly embraced with all on-road truck makers with the notable exception of Scania, embracing the technology.

Forced Air
One of the defining principles of Diesel’s original design was that compressed air was supplied with the fuel, enabling combustion at an atomic level so every particle is entirely burnt.

Improvements in injector technology have rendered this concept obsolete for about 100 years, but now the idea is coming back into vogue, as engine designers try to make every last drop burn completely.

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Plant Derv
Contrary to popular belief, running a vehicle on so-called biofuels is not automatically any cleaner, nor in many cases will manufacturers honour the warrantees of users who have tried it.

Properly refined though, there is no reason why it can’t be done. Indeed, Rudolf Diesel himself tried refining peanut oil when no refined fuel was available, with excellent results. Environmental politics aside, the main problems with it come down to gumming and glazing.

‘Gumming’ refers to sticky deposits that build up in the fuel line, which can block injectors, particularly in modern ultra-high pressure injection systems, while ‘glazing’ refers to the varnish-like build up that can be left by such fuels.

Rudolph Diesel - A life under pressure
Way back in 1903, the company boss of MAN trucks, one Heinrich von Buz, became interested in the plans for an invention known as the ‘rational heat engine’ being developed by inventor Rudolph Diesel.

There was a problem though – the engine simply wouldn’t run as the necessary pressure could not be achieved. Diesel wanted to compress – and thus heat – air in a cylinder with such great pressure that only a tiny amount of fuel would be needed to generate an explosion and drive the cylinder piston. But the pressure Diesel hoped to attain – over 150 atm– originally even much more – wasn’t possible, as it was based entirely on theory by the university scientist Carnot.

This didn’t deter Diesel from trying other methods to raise the pressure. Sources say he worked tirelessly, on occasion blowing things up but always coming back for more.

It took years, but as he wrote: “the desire to realise the Carnot process dominated my existence”. Eventually, he had to admit to himself that the science was junk, and the engine was never going to run. It was at this time that he set about re-writing the rule book, and developed the forebear of the engine that now bears his name.

The tale doesn’t have a happy end though – he had taken his designs to the UK, but on the ship back one night in 1913, he disappeared. Most credible historians suspect he was dispatched by German agents, as his designs were politically sensitive ahead of the First World War.