Some three years ago Volkswagen announced that it would start testing out the viability of clean diesel fuel in its vehicles. Well now that most people forget the automaker ever said it in the first place they have their test results back and are happy to say that clean diesel works just as well as crude-oil based diesel does. The testing period took the vehicles over standard roadways throughout the country and really put the fuel to the test. It was a pretty extensive period for these vehicles, but through all the regular driving the automaker has a bunch of new information about the technology now.
The Test
To test out the fuel technology Volkswagen ran a 2012 Jetta TDI and a Passat TDI of the same year. The two cars relied on the clean diesel fuel for a total of 134,000 miles on standard roadways. The technology wasn’t tested on tracks, but actual roads and highways around the country for more realistic results. Through all of the tests performed on the vehicle after the long-term driving both vehicles appeared to be quite normal.
The tests show that renewable diesel fuels could be used to power all the diesel vehicles currently driving around. Volkswagen stated that there were no engine problems throughout the test period and no signs of any abnormal wear either. The company is doing further tests on the two vehicles and making notes of any changes that could be made to future Volkswagen models to help ensure that they work well with clean diesel fuels.
Cutting Carbon Emissions
While it would be false to say that the diesel fuel doesn’t release any carbon emissions, it does have a significantly smaller carbon footprint than standard diesel fuel does. When the vehicles rely on this new form of diesel they emit around 50 percent of the carbon emissions that standard diesel fuel emits. That means if every driver were to switch to this fuel technology carbon emissions could be cut down dramatically.
More about the Fuels
The fuels used in the test vehicles aren’t commercially available yet and they are advanced solutions developed by companies Amyris and Solazyme. Instead of crude oil, Amyris relies on sugar plants to create the fuel it needs making it into a renewable resource that could be produced in the future even if crude oil is no longer available.
The test results show just how far clean diesel fuels have come in the last decade. They went from being a concept to actually being a real fuel source that could be relied upon to keep vehicles moving around the road without generating nearly as many harmful emissions. This fuel won’t solve our CO2 emission problems but it will offer a renewable source of fuel and would help cut down on emissions at the same time, and apparently it runs quite well in your everyday Volkswagen TDI vehicle.
