The Dirt on Diesel

With international concern mounting on the depletion of oil resources, where is our automotive industry going and how are we preparing our cars for an uncertain future?

We all want improved personal mobility but we worry about car emissions and the problems of global warming. One solution could be the new generation of diesel engines. Current diesel engines record just 50% of the emissions that engines produced only 7 years ago – and diesel engines have lower fuel consumption than those driven by petrol. They currently compete directly with petrol engines and, in Europe, half of all new cars sold are now diesel driven vehicles.

And what about the fuel they run on? Can biodiesel be a fuel for the future? What if we could recycle our own cooking oil or grow our fuel in the vegetable garden? This Research-TV story looks at research into the production of cleaner, greener and smarter diesel engines to power the next generation of motor vehicles.