Ryan Thomas

4/10/07
Honors Chem

ChemMatters Article Assignment:

“Diesel Under Pressure,” Feb. 1991, Vol. 9, Issue 1

Article Summary

Of the two main types of car engines, diesel and gas, diesel engines are superior
in several ways. Diesel engines often have twice the fuel economy of gas engines, are
several times more durable, and their emissions contain much less harmful carbon
monoxide, and smog-causing hydrocarbons.
However, diesel exhaust is extremely harmful. This flaw stems from the source
of the diesel engine’s advantages over gas engines: its high operating temperatures. Such
high temperatures allow more power from less fuel, but they also allow for NOx gases to
be created. These harmful gases pollute the air, and cause lung diseases. Also, carbon
that does not combust in the engine forms soot, which attaches to cancer-causing
substances known as carcinogens, and can be inhaled by anyone, anywhere.
The EPA and Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association agree that diesel engines
are extremely toxic, though they do not necessarily agree that the engines cause cancer.
They imposed standards to cut down on diesel pollution in 1991. Diesel manufacturers
now have to work on cutting down on diesel pollution.
The Southwest Research Institute in Texas found that a leading cause of the
harmful emissions is excess sulfur in diesel fuel. Cutting down on sulfur allows the fuel
to exceed the 1991 standards without modifying the engine. Also, using natural gas as
fuel for the engines practically eliminates the soot and NOx gases. Overall, it seems the
solution to the emissions problem lies in changing the fuel, although the problems are
caused by the engine’s operation.
Whatever the case may be, it is worth a lot of time and effort to make this superior
engine safe.

The article relates to several areas studied in class. Firstly, the diesel engine’s
problems are mainly due to incomplete combustion of carbon and oxygen; if the carbon
in the diesel fuel completely combusted, there would be no excess carbon to cause the
carcinogen-bearing soot, and if the oxygen completely combusted, there would be no
oxygen to form the NOx gases. Also, it links to what we have studied on the formation of
NOx gases: the aspect of the engine which allows the gases to form is the high operating
temperature; this makes sense, as NOx, which is an unstable molecule, can only be
created when the atoms are at such high temperatures that they are able to bond with
almost anything. Finally, there are two less significant links to the curriculum: the
article’s reference to sulfur bonding with oxygen to form SO2 is an example of chemical
bonding, and the attributes of the smog caused by the NOx gases (corrosivity, irritaition)
are explaned by study of NOx gases’s chemical properties.