The term diesel comes from Rudolf Diesel , a German engineer born in 1858 and died in 1913 who remained in history for the development of a type of engine and a fuel that bear his last name. The idea of diesel, therefore, can refer to said engine and fuel or to the vehicle that uses them.
Diesel fuel , also known as diesel fuel , is a product obtained from the distillation and purification of crude oil . This fuel is used in diesel engines , created by the aforementioned German engineer in 1893 : these are internal combustion engines in which, due to the high temperature registered by the compressed air in its cylinder, the fuel self-ignites when injected into the cylinder. the camera. A diesel vehicle , for its part, uses this type of engine and runs on the aforementioned fuel.
The main characteristic of the diesel engine is that the high temperature derived from the high compression ratio allows the fuel to self-ignite. Compression, therefore, increases the temperature of the combustion chamber: when the fuel (diesel, gasoil or diesel) is injected and mixes with hot air, its self-ignition occurs. Therefore, a spark is not needed, as is the case in gasoline engines. Combustion , in turn, causes the gas in the chamber to expand and moves the piston outward.
Due to its design , the diesel engine achieves great thermodynamic efficiency, generally greater than that achieved by gasoline engines. Diesel, on the other hand, is usually cheaper than gasoline, making the diesel engine a low-cost engine to operate.
In addition to the already mentioned advantages of diesel cars compared to gasoline cars, other equally important ones must be highlighted, such as these:
-The former are considered to be much more efficient because their pulling capacity is much more notable.
-In the same way, it should not be overlooked that they consume less fuel per kilometer.
However, they also have a series of disadvantages that should not be forgotten, such as the following:
-It is considered that diesel cars are equipped with engines that are not only heavier but also much noisier than gasoline ones.
-Likewise, it is indicated that the initial price of these vehicles is more expensive than the others.
-It is also established that diesel cars require maintenance that is more expensive than that of their "rivals."
-Of course, we must not overlook that in the event that a diesel vehicle breaks down, its repair will be much more expensive, economically speaking, than that of a gasoline one.
-In this list of disadvantages we cannot ignore the fact that diesel cars turn out to be more polluting than gasoline cars. Precisely for this reason now, in countries such as Spain, measures are being taken to limit the circulation of the most polluting diesel vehicles through city centers. Madrid is a clear example of this measure that is being carried out using vehicle labels.