Posted on 09/24/2006 10:33:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
HAGA-GUN, Japan (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co. (7267.T) said on Monday it has developed a new and simple diesel powertrain that is as clean as gasoline-fuelled cars, unveiling plans to mount it on a car for the U.S. market by 2009.
Diesel engines, which now power half of Europe's new cars, are slowly gaining traction with fuel-conscious consumers around the world since they typically get 30 percent better mileage than gasoline cars.
Their weakness has been the higher exhaust levels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), a greenhouse gas, and carmakers are racing to come up with ways to clear the world's strictest emissions regulations, which the United States will usher in next year.
Honda's new diesel drivetrain generates and stores ammonia within a two-layer catalytic converter to turn nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen.
Honda engineers said the technology is superior to a process pioneered by Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG (DCXGn.DE) because the latter requires a complex system and heavy add-ons to generate ammonia from urea-based additives.
Some technical hurdles remain.
The system would need fine-tuning for the wide-ranging cetane indexes of diesel fuel found in the United States. Honda also needs to develop technology to measure emissions levels according to U.S. On-Board Diagnostic System requirements.
But Japan's third-biggest auto maker said it planned to roll out the advanced diesel engine, first in the United States within three years and later to other regions. DaimlerChrysler, which along with Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE) already sells diesel cars in the world's biggest auto market, is preparing its next-generation diesel car for a 2008 launch.
Honda has long been at the forefront of green powertrain technology, perhaps most famously with the development in 1973 of the CVCC (Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion) engine which gave the popular Civic its name. The engine was the first to meet U.S. clean air guidelines without a catalytic converter.
"Just as we paved the way for cleaner gasoline engines, we will take the leadership in the progress of diesel engines," Honda Chief Executive Takeo Fukui told a news conference.
Honda would be "open to considering" licensing its new diesel technology once it was perfected, Fukui said.
FUEL CELLS, FLEX-FUEL
In a demonstration of other new power plant technologies at its R&D center in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, Honda also showed off a prototype of its next-generation fuel cell vehicle which runs on a newly developed compact and more powerful fuel cell stack.
The new stack is designed to allow the hydrogen and water formed during electricity generation to flow vertically instead of horizontally, making the component 20 percent smaller and 30 percent lighter than the previous version.
Honda's new FCX fuel-cell car now has a driving range of 570 km (354 miles) -- a 30 percent improvement from the 2005 model. Its maximum speed is 160 km (100 miles) per hour, and it can be driven in temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius (-22
F).
Honda plans to begin marketing the car in limited numbers in 2008 in Japan and the United States.
Honda said it also developed a flexible fuel vehicle system that can operate on any proportion of ethanol to gasoline between 20 percent and 100 percent. That car will be sold in Brazil, the biggest market for ethanol-based vehicles, later this year.
"Way out in the future, the ultimate green car will be fuel cell vehicles," Fukui said. "But in the meantime, you need a wide range of green technology to meet varying local needs and fuel supply."
In this undated photo released by Honda Motor Co. on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006, Honda's next-generation diesel engine is seen. The next-generation diesel car, an innovation still in the works at Honda, is planned for the U.S. market within three years. (AP Photo/Honda Motor Co., HO)
In this undated photo released by Honda Motor Co. on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006, Honda's next-generation fuel cell car, the FCX Concept, runs at a test facility in Haga-Machi, north of Tokyo. The fuel cell vehicle from the Japanese automaker, scheduled for limited marketing in Japan and the U.S. in 2008, has a slick, streamlined, close-to-the-ground look that's atypical of such vehicles. But it still delivers the superclean drive of a fuel cell, which runs on the power produced when oxygen in the air combines with hydrogen that's stored in the car's fuel tank, creating only harmless water vapor. (AP Photo/Honda Motor Co., HO)
In this undated photo released by Honda Motor Co. on Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006, Honda's new fuel cell stack for the next-generation fuel cell vehicle, the FCX Concept, is seen. The fuel cell vehicle from the Japanese automaker, scheduled for limited marketing in Japan and the U.S. in 2008, has a new fuel cell stack that is 20 percent smaller than the one Honda developed in 2003, and can sit in between the driver and passenger's seats in the front, where the stick shift lies in a regular car. (AP Photo/Honda Motor Co., HO)
I'm sure the greenies will find fault with this...
This is pretty cool too: http://www.youtube.com/v/ry6w3mRm-FM
Thanks!
I'm sure everything you've said is true
I'm equally sure that a car could print copies of Al Gore's book on recycled paper using soy ink spitting them out the tailpipe and SOME greenie would object
Blast! Another innovation thanks to the free market.
Oh, where are those great innovations from the Islamic world?
Curses, socialism foiled again.
I'm always amazed at the speed to which freedom responds
to a need.
Great news, perhaps the Diesel prices can come down as well. Right now, about 20 cents more than reg. gas.
Littering.
Ha. That's a pretty cool and fast moving show for car-freaks that I saw when I was recently in Europe. They do some very funny bits.
My favorite line was, the host was reviewing some pretty exotic car, like a Bentley or a high-end BMW. He said the engine "sounds like Barry White eating wasps".
Ping. Follow post 5 link too.
Generally, anything that increases the demand for diesel fuel drives its cost UP, not DOWN.
Also, it should be noted that a barrel of oil yields significantly fewer gallons of diesel fuel than gasoline...which places a practical limit on how cheap diesel can get in comparison to gasoline.
Experiments have found that mice, breathing 100% nitrogen, died.
yitbos
One advantage of diesel is that it is less flammable than gasoline, so you get fewer diesel car fires than you have gasoline car fires.
Another advantage of diesel is that low-sulphur, clean diesel can be made from natural gas, something that the U.S. has a lot of access to, and also that clean diesel can be made from coal, something that the U.S. has more of than does anyone else.
Over time, as innovations like Honda's above in this thread move into the marketplace, the old unionized behemoths like GM and Ford will weaken enough that the trial lawyers will begin suing gasoline car manufacturers over car fires.
Likewise, the trial lawyers will seed various "grass roots" organizations with enough money to make Congress take action against car fires.
Add all of the above up and it's pretty easy to see that to survive in the future, auto manufacturers will have to move away from gasoline. Diesel may well be what they move to, especially in the short term.
That's because refineries are primarily designed and optimized to produce the maximum gasoline from that barrel of oil. The diesel produced is one of those "side products" that are also saleable. If market requirements change, the refineries will change their processes.
Also, it should be noted that a barrel of oil yields significantly fewer gallons of diesel fuel than gasoline...which places a practical limit on how cheap diesel can get in comparison to gasoline.
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And yet at one time diesel was much lower priced than gasoline, is the fact that diesel costs more than gasoline now solely a result of increased demand for diesel relative to gas? I don't know much about refining, how much of the yield is fixed, can the percentage of diesel versus gasoline, kerosene etc. be varied within limits?
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