Diesel Emissions
The controversy that is surrounding diesel emissions have become a growing concern in many communities and many other organizations including the EPA. The EPA is the Environmental Protection Agency and their job is pretty self-explanatory they are put in place to protect and create laws to prevent and protect the environment from pollution and many other matters. The essential question I am researching is whether or not the black smoke from diesel exhaust is polluting to the ozone layer and contributing to the greenhouse gasses. It has become one of the biggest conversation pieces in modern society because of the fact that most of all transportation vehicles including Semi-trucks as well as construction equipment vehicles …show more content…
For example in California diesel truck enthusiasts that have vehicles that emit black smoke can be fined up to $5,000 and your vehicle can be held by the state government until the vehicle has had proper precautions taken and is able to pass the EPA’s smog test. On the other end of the spectrum in many of the southern states such as Texas and Florida the EPA’s presence is very limited to the degree of no laws or regulations of the diesel smoke output other than the federal law that states that a vehicle is only allowed to emit black smoke under acceleration or if the vehicle is towing a heavy load, but the law also states that the vehicle can emit smoke for a maximum of 5 seconds. Emitting black smoke is been referred to as “rolling coal” this term exists because the smoke is black which resembles the smoke that trains in the early days would emit from their smoke stacks because of the act of burning coal emits black smoke. The science behind the whole act of “rolling coal” is when a diesel vehicle is not completely burning all fuel that is injected into the cylinders of a diesel motor. So in general the census is that the black smoke is just unburnt fuel. As many people can see when driving down a highway many semi-trucks or many other industrial vehicles emit black smoke into the air. The smoke exists because …show more content…
As of 2004 diesel engine manufacturing companies such as Cummins and International have been required to install emissions equipment such as EGR’s which is an Exhaust Gas Recirculation device which takes exhaust gases and recirculates the gases back through to burn all extra gasses in the motor. In 2007 the EPA issued another emission requirement that is called a DPF which is a Diesel Particulate Filter. This takes any smoke and particulate that does not get caught and catalyzes it in the DPF. Diesel engine manufacturers have been trying to figure out a way to maximize fuel economy and keep the emissions in check. So in 2011 some diesel engine manufacturing companies introduced DEF which is Diesel Exhaust Fluid. The science behind this is the DEF helps to catalyze the particulate in the exhaust faster to essentially make a cleaner exhaust gas. But in doing so other chemicals are being burnt which have not yet proven to be harmful but may become in the future. The difficulty that the EPA is having in the fight against the diesel vehicles that emit smoke is either the vehicles
The controversy that is surrounding diesel emissions have become a growing concern in many communities and many other organizations including the EPA. The EPA is the Environmental Protection Agency and their job is pretty self-explanatory they are put in place to protect and create laws to prevent and protect the environment from pollution and many other matters. The essential question I am researching is whether or not the black smoke from diesel exhaust is polluting to the ozone layer and contributing to the greenhouse gasses. It has become one of the biggest conversation pieces in modern society because of the fact that most of all transportation vehicles including Semi-trucks as well as construction equipment vehicles …show more content…
For example in California diesel truck enthusiasts that have vehicles that emit black smoke can be fined up to $5,000 and your vehicle can be held by the state government until the vehicle has had proper precautions taken and is able to pass the EPA’s smog test. On the other end of the spectrum in many of the southern states such as Texas and Florida the EPA’s presence is very limited to the degree of no laws or regulations of the diesel smoke output other than the federal law that states that a vehicle is only allowed to emit black smoke under acceleration or if the vehicle is towing a heavy load, but the law also states that the vehicle can emit smoke for a maximum of 5 seconds. Emitting black smoke is been referred to as “rolling coal” this term exists because the smoke is black which resembles the smoke that trains in the early days would emit from their smoke stacks because of the act of burning coal emits black smoke. The science behind the whole act of “rolling coal” is when a diesel vehicle is not completely burning all fuel that is injected into the cylinders of a diesel motor. So in general the census is that the black smoke is just unburnt fuel. As many people can see when driving down a highway many semi-trucks or many other industrial vehicles emit black smoke into the air. The smoke exists because …show more content…
As of 2004 diesel engine manufacturing companies such as Cummins and International have been required to install emissions equipment such as EGR’s which is an Exhaust Gas Recirculation device which takes exhaust gases and recirculates the gases back through to burn all extra gasses in the motor. In 2007 the EPA issued another emission requirement that is called a DPF which is a Diesel Particulate Filter. This takes any smoke and particulate that does not get caught and catalyzes it in the DPF. Diesel engine manufacturers have been trying to figure out a way to maximize fuel economy and keep the emissions in check. So in 2011 some diesel engine manufacturing companies introduced DEF which is Diesel Exhaust Fluid. The science behind this is the DEF helps to catalyze the particulate in the exhaust faster to essentially make a cleaner exhaust gas. But in doing so other chemicals are being burnt which have not yet proven to be harmful but may become in the future. The difficulty that the EPA is having in the fight against the diesel vehicles that emit smoke is either the vehicles