Carbon Monoxide in Diesel Exhaust ?

[Mrwurm]

A friend of mine is quite certain that Diesel Exhaust is not deadly like car exhaust. Can this be true ? Does'nt burning Diesel produce carbon monoxide as a by-product just like gas ?

Maybe I should ask him for a demonstration /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

It is my understanding that diesel emits more carbon monoxide, as well as several other chemicals.

My business is based inside of a government "ozone non-attainment" area and we are required by law to purchase vehicles that qualify as LEV (low emission vehicles) or ULEV (ultra low emission vehicles) for all of our vehicles that are under 26,000# GVW. As I recall, from the seminar I was required to attend several years ago (and my memory is failing as I age) most of the major metropolitan areas in the US have been designated on some pollution scale, and the more severe areas are non-attainment areas in terms of specific chemical particulates as measured in p.p.b. in the air. Those areas require companies with "qualifying fleets" to bear the financial burden of buying trucks with special engines that burn cleaner than normal trucks. The government program is called the Clean Fuel Fleet Program (C.F.F.P.).

Anyway, we have to track all sorts of data, and part of that is how much fuel we use inside of specific counties (like Cook County/Chicago) so we know how much polution we cause (or perhaps how much we reduce by running cleaner engines?). One of the major criteria the government measures is Carbon Monoxide. So while I am not a chemist and not posititve of the actual particulates that we burn in our diesel trucks, I do know that the govenment is requiring me to purchase, via the C.F.F.P., specially approved engines that meet their emissions standards, and since they measure carbon monoxide as part of teh C.F.F.P., I presume that I pay extra to spew less of it than a normal diesel.

 

[DaveNay]

This seems to be a somewhat common opinion. My father-in-law says the same thing, but I think it is pure bunk. Diesel and Gasoline are both hydrocarbon fuels, and (i'm no petrochemical engineer) should break down into similar compounds when burned.

Dave

 

[slowrev]

Maybe your friend just thinks it is not deadly because you get run out from your eyes and lungs burning out before the CO gets high enough to kill ya. Diesel smoke in an enclosed is miserable...

 

[Lazy]

Hi
Acording to this site diesel emits 1/2 the CO as gas

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/carbon_monoxide_alert.htm

charlie

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I'm certainly willing to accept that diesel has less CO than gas when it burns, but what about the total polution? Perhaps in the technical sense, the CO from diesel will kill you more slowly than the CO from gas because gas produces less, however that doesn't take into account any of the black junk that spews out of a diesel engine into the air. I suppose that was not strictly addressed by the original post, and I certainly didn't address it with my understanding of diesel exhaust as it relates to the Clean Fuel Fleet program and the trucks I run, but somehow I think that breathing the exhaust from a diesel or a gas engine will kill you.

 

[Lazy]

Hi
Another good Info site about diesel Carbon Monoxide

http://www.stealthtdi.com/Emissions.html

Charlie

 

[EastTexFrank]

I've never heard that one before.

Any hydrocarbon fuel, gas, diesel, kerosene, wood, coal, propane, natural gas, etc., will produce CO when burned. The amount of CO produced will depend on the amount of oxygen available and the efficiency of the combustion process. Complete combustion will give you CO2 and water, which won't do you a whole lot of good either if it depletes the oxygen supply in the room. As the available oxygen decreases, the amount of CO produced increases.

I don't know about a gasoline engine producing twice as much CO as a diesel engine but I will guarantee you that diesel exhaust will kill you just as dead as a gas exhaust. The same goes for natural gas, propane or kerosene heaters used in a confined, airtight room. As they deplete the oxygen, they produce more CO and you go to sleep for a long, long time. Wood and coal fires are slightly different as the gases exhaust up the chimney but a cracked chimney or leaking stovepipe can allow CO to seep back into the room with the same effect.

If he's a friend that you value and want to keep, don't let him put his theory to the test.

 

[Mrwurm]

Thanks for all the replies. It sounded fishy to me /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

What interested me was the statement on the website that says since diesel cars are more efficient than petrol (gasoline) cars then they emit correspondinly lower levels of carbon dioxide. IF that statement is true, and if their example of 30 to 40% more efficient yields 30 to 40% reduced CO emissions is true as they lay it out, then using two engines, each of equal efficiency, would produce equal amounts of CO.

Hence, the diesel, if Lazy's second website is correct, actually produces the SAME level of CO as the gas, presuming the two engines are equally efficient. So going back to Jerry's first post with his friend, diesel does produce CO just like gas if you compare equally efficient burning engines (based on the information on the second website).

I still contend that anyway you look at you will die. But that is another issue.