VW's blueprint for a green future

Interesting piece about VW's mid-term environmental strategy. New engine technologies (CCS) and bio-fuels are mentioned.

http://www.channel4.com/4car/ft/feature/feature/7134/1

Sweet, nice link.

The key is getting India and China to follow. Leading by example will be crucial. I hope this strategy is adopted as soon as possible.

I've got no problem with "leading by example". Coersion and forced payment for 'theoretical damage' is, well, sick.

More detailed info. on same....


http://www.vw-environment.de/buster/buster.asp?i=wissen_23016.asp

DRbillZ said:

I've got no problem with "leading by example". Coersion and forced payment for 'theoretical damage' is, well, sick.

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The sick part of the sentence is: "theoretical damage"
Don't worry, "coersion and forced payment" will come fast, for humanity to adapt to climate change, and dictated by nature itself....

China & India should be forced to comply, but this is the least of our problem's, diseases like AIDS and world hunger & poverty take priority over the planets natural cycles.

in-car hydrogen fuel tanks that can be built at a realistic price

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My biggest quibble with the original Channel4 report is that, given the ovarall view-point of the piece, and the general tone of this final sentence, he should have said, "in-car energy storage systems that can be built at a realistic price".

That way the goal includes better batteries, better fuel heating systems, and hydrogen storage, plus technologies that haven't even been thought of yet!

shizzler said:

The key is getting India and China to follow. Leading by example will be crucial.

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I absolutely agree!

DRbillZ said:

I've got no problem with "leading by example". Coersion and forced payment for 'theoretical damage' is, well, sick.

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I also agree here. But where did you see "Coersion and forced payment for 'theoretical damage' "? Sounds like something from one of the dozen or so other philosophical and policy discussions I'm following around here, but I don't think I saw it in this thread. Those 3 concepts lead to far too many "slippery slopes" when you ask "...And then what?"

Anyway, the *people* of India and China (and developing countries around the world, who all need more energy every year) (and the US, for that matter) ARE NOT STUPID. They do, however, have many needs and desires to balance every day, just like you and I. When more-economical (in money and time), more-efficient energy sources are available, they will be used.
__________________
kharmin

'06 Jetta - Spice Red & beige
DSG, pkg0, anti-glare aspherical mirrors, door locks mod (by the dealer!)

More on the VW CCS concept:

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Diesel combustion process may dominate future powertrains, believes VW

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]by John McCormick[/FONT]

Volkswagen’s new combined combustion system (CCS) combines the best of gasoline and diesel engine technologies. Dr. Wolfgang Steiger, director of powertrain research at VW, explains that the gasoline engine contributes the homogeneous fuel-air mixture and low emissions to the CCS process, while the diesel contributes self ignition and low fuel consumption. Here, Dr Steiger discusses VW’s diesel powertrain strategy and how it leads towards CCS.

DF: Can you explain your diesel technology strategy, starting in the near term?

WS: The next step in the US is related to legislation and highly concentrated on exhaust after-treatment systems. More or less we will put a small electrochemistry facility on the engine, which makes us reduce the NOx and the particulates to the required level. This will come soon; in 2008 those engines will be demonstrated. We are working on two systems; one is a NOx storage catalyst, it can only be used with smaller cars. For larger cars we surely need SCR technology with urea. We are working on different urea systems, we not only concentrate on the liquid urea, we are also thinking about solid urea usage, which requires less space and less weight for the urea tank. It’s not clear whether we will be successful, but I think by mid-next year we should know. This will be combined with further development of injection equipment in the next generation of common rail technology. We’ll have higher pressures. We have a system currently running which allows us to hit an injection pressure of 3000 bar, versus 1850 today. The next step, which is currently under serious development, is going up to 2000 bars, and with our new injectors we have been at 2,500 bars. So there's still room for improvement.

The advantage of higher pressure is to reduce the droplet size, during the injection. So the fuel spray is much more homogenous and this leads to dramatic reduction of particulate and NOx emissions.

DF: Now as you look further down the road, you’re talking about combining gasoline and diesel engine technology. This raises several questions, including the specification of the fuel of the future?

WS: I think, based on a new specification, which is in-between a diesel fuel and gasoline fuel, it’s very near to what is today’s kerosene or jet fuel. From the vaporization curve it’s very close. We see possibilities to further improve the combustion behavior. The idea is more homogeneous with the preparation, but still staying with the auto ignition. Auto ignition is a prerequisite for really high efficient combustion. Whenever you need you use a spark you are indicating a flame front, which takes some time to ‘walk’ with the combustion. This time lag affects the total efficiency. If you make an auto ignition process you have thousands of flame fronts which are activated simultaneously. This leads to more efficient combustion.

DF: So effectively you see the diesel ignition process becoming dominant in the future?

WS: Yes. There is always a benefit coming from the auto ignition process versus a spark ignite ignition. Always a benefit.

DF: But diesel engines have to be stronger and are generally more expensive than spark ignition engines. Do you see a way around that problem?

WS: We see from our charging technology (turbo and supercharging) which has come out now on the gasoline side (Golf GT TSI “Twincharger’), we need more stressable gasoline engines. So those engines are coming much nearer to diesel already. I think there is no need for further strengthening of the diesel engine, it’s already where it should be. I see that the difference between gasoline and diesel is getting less, as the gasoline is trying to reach the efficiency of a diesel car. It’s coming nearer and nearer from the cost side and the total effort.

DF: So the energy efficiency of your diesel engines is now at what point?

WS: We have peak efficiency of about 50 percent in some of the engines. In our Lupo 3L TDI (3 liters per 100km fuel consumption rating) car we had the most efficient diesel engine ever shown. It had a peak efficiency of 51 percent. The average efficiency in a test cycle is about 30 percent and for gasoline it is about 25 percent.

DF: So the combined combustion system (CCS) you are developing will have what sort of efficiency?

WS: It’s about 2 points better, so it’s maybe 32 to 33 percent.

DF: With your ‘Twincharger’ system, there is the issue of the cost of adding superchargers and turbochargers to an engine.

WS: Yes, cost is always a problem. Whatever you produce you try to reduce the cost. But on the other hand we try to fulfill our customer expectations and we have to fulfill the legal requirements and we have to fulfill more or less some kind of sustainability for the future. We have to get more sustainable. Unfortunately, this needs more effort on the engine side. So, it’s a clear goal to keep it simple and easy and less expensive, but unfortunately we cannot realize all our items in simplifying the engines. So we will see more complexity in the future. The only way we could think about simplifying the combustion engine is in the addition of hybrid systems. The more power we take from electric motors, the simpler we can design our combustion engines.

We see two pathways. One is adding more complexity to the combustion engine and staying with combustion as the main producer of force. This is especially necessary for long distance driving. For short distance driving we see electrification and with that, the simplification of combustion engines. So we need two different developments.

The engines will look completely different. The combustion pathway will lead to larger displacements, it will lead to combustion types like CCS. The other pathway will lead to much smaller cylinder displacements and no CCS because those engines are mostly running at full load, where you cannot realize the CCS mode.

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http://www.dieselforecast.com/ArticleDetails.php?articleID=338

Nice find, wxman! It was an interesting and enlightening read.

I suspect the figure of 51 percent peak efficiency quoted for the 3L Lupo doesn't count driving auxiliaries, as it sounds high.

But I like what Mr. Steiger says about the future of engine development. He has a common pulse to how I'm seeing things from my side. I like how he is keeping all technological options open, including hybrid, spark ignition (through technologies like TSI and FSI), Diesel, and beyond.