Guest Post by Eric Peters
Mazda Motor’s director and senior managing executive officer Kiyoshi Fujiwara talks about its new engine, to be called SKYACTIV-X, at a news conference in Tokyo, Japan August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Diesels are at the top of the Dead Pool – on account of their particularly diesel exhaust byproducts, specifically particulates (aka, soot) and oxides of nitrogen (aka NOx). But diesels are much more fuel-efficient than gas-burning engines because they are compression ignition engines.
Well, compression and heat.
Instead of a spark to set off the explosion, the air/fuel charge is progressively squeezed (and thereby, heated) as the pistons ascends within its cylinder until – boom! – it ignites spontaneously.
More of the potential energy contained in the fuel is translated into useful mechanical energy.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
This is why diesels go farther on a gallon of fuel than gas-burners.
But diesels also have the aforesaid emissions issues – also unique to their design.
Most of this – almost all of this – has been dialed out or tamped down or otherwise sequestered, notwithstanding the despicably exaggerated presentations of the media. Nonetheless, diesels are persona non grata, especially in the United States but increasingly in Europe, too.
There are outright bans – and if not bans, then regulatory rigamarole so stringent and expensive to comply with as to make it not worth complying with them.
Electric cars are touted as the alternative. But – again – the presentation is wildly misleading. They can only be the alternative if cost isn’t a consideration (which is like a woman getting pregnant at 60 without sex and hell, without a man involved at all) and only if large numbers of people are willing to accept not-minor functional inconveniences – in particular, the best-case scenario 30-45 minute wait to recharge the battery pack at a “fast” charger.
Which is as likely as expecting that people will put up with a 30-45 minute wait to get a cheeseburger at a “fast” food restaurant.
Mazda may have a better option: The diesel gas engine.
It won’t burn diesel fuel, of course. But it will diesel. That is, it will compression-ignite the air-fuel mixture. But it will also transition to spark ignition under certain conditions, the idea being to give the best of both worlds. This type of engine is called Homogenous Charge Compression Ignition – and Mazda says this will uptick fuel efficiency by 30 percent vs. an otherwise same-size spark-ignition engine.
And it will do this – so Mazda claims and hopes – without the soot and NOx emissions that have become politically problematic for diesel-burning diesel engines.
A side benefit will be more torque – something diesel-diesels have always had more of (and sooner) than spark-ignition engines.
The new gas-burning diesel will be marketed as Skyactiv-X – alongside Mazda’s current line of Skyactiv-G gas (not diesel-gas) engines and Skyactive-D diesel (diesel) engines – beginning in 2019. Here’s the official announcement.
It sounds good.
But…
And there is always a but.
This is a complex system, first of all. Compression-ignition and spark-ignition must work together, seamlessly. This presents a huge engineering challenge because of the very different operating characteristics of the two types of internal combustion.
Diesels burble – and sometime rattle. The word, “diesel” is also an adjective. Sound deadening can deal with some of this, of course. But diesels are also low RPM engines – usually all out of steam by 4,500 or less RPM.
This is not very Zoom! Zoom!
Will Mazda buyers warm to this?
They may – assuming also that the Skyactiv-X engines’ price-to-mileage ratio falls within the economic sweet spot. Provided, in other words, that the new diesel-gas engine doesn’t cost too much relative to the mileage it delivers.
That has become an issue for hybrids. As gas prices have fallen, so have sales of hybrid-powered cars – precisely because the price-to-mileage ratio is no longer as favorable and won’t be unless gas prices go up by at least $1 per gallon. No matter how “cool” the technology may be, if the car costs more to buy, its cost to own is necessarily higher.
This matters to most people – even if it does not matter to the government.
As a purely technical achievement, what Mazda has managed to do is remarkable. Engineers have been trying to make a viable compression-ignition gas engine for generations.
But the Emperor’s Clothes question remains: Is any of this really necessary?
Gasoline is inexpensive – a consequence of abundance rather than scarcity. Gas-burning engines (spark-ignition engines) are remarkably efficient and would or could be 50 percent more so if the government would quit forcing the car companies to build 3,000 pound-plus tanks (for “safety”).
Currently available diesel engines are capable of 60-plus MPG and are “clean.” Just not that extra .005 percent “cleaner” demanded by the government.
Instead of simple, cost-effective solutions we get complex and expensive ones.
Because that’s what government excels at.
“Gas-burning engines (spark-ignition engines) are remarkably efficient and would or could be 50 percent more so if the government would quit forcing the car companies to build 3,000 pound-plus tanks (for “safety”).”
My guess is that the engines would be every bit as efficient, not more or less efficient, in a vehicle weighing either half or twice that amount. IC efficiency is the result of the design of the engine, not the weight of the vehicle it is used in.
Perhaps you fail to understand the term you are using and mean something like gas mileage instead.
BTW, the government is not forcing that weight, you can buy a Smart car at half that weight if you like with complete government approval.
Semantics at best anonymous. I think the real measurement of efficiency includes the entire package.
Very complex, eh?
What that probably means is a shitload of money in maintenance and repairs.
I owned just one Mazda …. a 929. I loved it.
How’d that Wankle rotary work out for ya there Mazda?
The real early ones were unrepairable shit. They got them dialed-in in later years & they worked well. A big problem was oil use which is inherent to the design. Thinking they may be back soon.
http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2016/11/23/mazda-rotary-engine-returning-in-2019.html
Mazda may be aiming this more at the European and Chinese markets than the US. Britain is trying to find a way to scrap the diesel vehicles the Labour government was encouraging people to buy just a few years ago. Germany and France probably won’t go that far as it would destroy what’s left of their auto companies reputations but fuel is expensive in Europe and Mazda could take market share from the European companies as they scramble to revert back to gas engines. China, now the world’s largest auto market, is leaning toward EVs now but whether they can develop the electric generation capacity to power them is questionable so Mazda may do well here too.
Might be worth taking a position in Mazda stock.
EV could be considered Insurance in addition power plant when needed most. Many in the gas-o-lean business that can do math expect future gas rationing. Modern PV arrays generate abundant surplus kWh’s.
Why would there be gasoline rationing?
We have an abundance oil and more reserves are being discovered and brought on line on a regular basis.
The Permian basin alone could put OPEC out of business and add in the Bakken and we have more than we will know what to do with for a long time.
And that’s just us, there’s the rest of the world to add in as well.
FWIW, most people would need to charge their vehicles at night, not during the day, which presents another complexity for solar.
The estimates I see for recoverable oil in the US are from 30 to 60 billion barrels .Google US oil reserves.
We pump 3.6 billion barrels ( US ) and import the rest to consume 5.6 billion barrels a year.
The US will be a marginal oil producer in 8 to 16 years. Maybe less. We are getting very good a taking oil out of the ground. We are now exporting crude oil. Let’s make money-to hell with the future.
Heard THAT bullshit before. What ever happened to the “peak oil” fake news of yesteryear? We will continue to have abundant oil because it’s a renewable resource-pressure and time, baby.
The oil alarmists are similar to the climate changers who are constantly warning of doomsday, but doomsday never comes…… But it will tomorrow, dammit!
The future will be determined by forces far larger than we are, probably in the blink of an eye. We’re just an extinct species who doesn’t know it yet.
The last refinerery in the west been built? A small shortfall and you have rationing. Catalysis and kWh to run such fragile infrastructure are taken for granted. Time to diversify and decentralize. You have been warned.
This engine sounds like a high-quality refinement of already-existing technology. Or, a workable implementation of already-existing knowledge. In other words, nothing patentable. Seems to me that if it works well and sells well over the first few years, it will be replicated by competitors. Mazda would have to hugely increase its market share during those few years when it has a unique product.
The engine to watch is the Achates OPOC.