End Of The​​​​​​​ Ice Age?

With all the on-going electrification of vehicles and governments globally moving away from diesel, we take a look at the technologies aiming to maintain a place in our world for internal combustion. Is this the end?

- Jonathan Musk

The steam engine. It pioneered mechanical motion, using steam pressure to push a piston in a cylinder that turned a crank. Motion through gas. Petrol then diesel followed, making the same principle idea safer for everyday use, despite using highly flammable liquids. And then there’s the electric motor, conceived before any of the others. Today, we take it for granted that petrol and diesel power our world. They power our cars and lorries. They’ve been instrumental in pushing human endeavours, population, farming and exploration. However, it has come at a heavy price: we’re quite literally poisoning the planet. The simple and inescapable fact is when fuel burns, it produces gas, no matter how ‘clean’. And in the extreme quantities that we use around the world, these gases are causing early deaths, global warming and a host of other side effects that Karl Benz and Rudolph Diesel likely never considered, yet would be horrified to realise.

While diesel today is popular for its miles per gallon efficiency, it has fallen from favour thanks to exhaust gases and not just those we measure for tax. NOx and many more particulates are spewed from exhausts every single time combustion takes place and keep in mind most engines idle at just under 1,000rpm. That’s 1,000 revolutions per 60 seconds and that’s a lot of combustion. Even if we consider an “economical” petrol or diesel vehicle which emits 100g/km CO2, that’s like throwing a slab of chocolate out the window every kilometre travelled. And that’s just CO2. Clearly, something must be done.