Diesel is the New Look in "Green"

The eco-friendly-minded woman is confronted everyday with an assortment of “green” items. Clothing companies devoted to making garments without any synthetic fibers, recycled cardboard cup sleeves at Starbucks, even make-up that comes in biodegradable boxes with flower seeds mixed in. (The add says that you can plant the used boxes in the ground to grow a garden.) Not that I’m against saving the environment but, honestly, I think some things go too far.

And then there are the cars. At first it was the cute little “girly” cars like the Honda Insight. Then the family sedans started “going green” with cars like the Toyota Camry Hybrid and now, the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid is soon to make every soccer mom “green” with envy. Although these cars make great strides in fuel efficiency and lower emissions, they come up short on power and towing capacity. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for breathing clean air. I understand the need for lower emissions vehicles, but what’s a horsepower hungry girl to do when all the low emissions cars just won’t give the performance she craves? Enter: BlueTec.

BlueTec is the clean diesel technology that Mercedes is beginning to use in their diesel engines. Until recently diesel engines have not been able to meet the increasingly rigorous emissions restrictions in the U.S. European countries have been using diesel-powered vehicles for more than 65 years. Diesel cars get 20-30 percent better gas-mileage than conventional gasoline engines without sacrificing horsepower. Hmm... sounds good to me. So why hasn’t the U.S. jumped onto the diesel engine wagon? It’s because the U.S. has stricter emissions regulations (1/8 of what is allowed in Europe to be exact). On top of that, the diesel fuel available in America had higher sulfur levels than that in Europe until last year, meaning that our diesel fuel would clog the filters that make the European versions more efficient.

Last October, the U.S. switched its diesel to a cleaner, less sulfuric version, making cleaner diesels possible. This is where BlueTec comes in. The problem with diesel has been high Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) outputs. What BlueTec does is it takes a catalytic converter that targets the NOx and stores it and then eventually transfers it to a second catalytic converter which converts the chemical into water and safe nitrous gas. This whole process gives up little if any horsepower. A few car companies have already begun making cars with BlueTec technology for the U.S. market. Carmakers such as Honda, Mitsubishi, and General Motors have all made promises of cleaner diesels after the year 2009.

So, while it may take a few more years for these new diesels to hit the market as hard as the hybrids have, I definitely don’t mind waiting a little while longer before I “go green.”