Nothing will reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and clean the environment, than wider use of diesel.

I'm sure that 10 years from now, there will be plenty of diesel hybrids. But, until then, I'll do my part and buy a diesel car.

If you see a Jetta that says TDI on the back, remember, that car can do more for the oil problem than your Prius can do.

Hold on GregP1962.........

Until the EPA gives a Jetta TDI a 10 and a 9.5 on the greenhouse gas and air pollution scores, and the CARB states start letting them be sold again, let's just stay within reality.

Right now, reality says that the Prius is better than the Jetta for the measurable pollutants that matter to global warming and clean air.

Nothing personal about this - more power to Diesel fans. But let's remember the facts......

I agree that current hybrids are cleaner than current diesels. But hybrids could be much more effecient in the way they generate, use and regenerate power. But, imagine the effeciency of a clean diesel hybrid. For them to not be using diesel in place of gasoline, is nuts.

You can run B20 biodiesel right now, without modifications.

It's summer, so right now I run my vehicle on straight vegetable oil, straight from the supermarket (ie not diesel or biodiesel). Certain makes of diesel car run fine on rape-seed oil without any modification (I chose my car for this reason). Thousands of people in Germany do this too.

When my car is running on SVO, it produces less than a quarter the amount of CO2 as a Prius overall. This is the real benefit of the diesel engine.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/ecot.htm

You are assuming that if you could refine a barrel of oil to 100% gas or 100% diesel (which you can't), you'd end up with the same number of gallons of each.

Diesel has more energy per gallon, but roughly the same energy by weight.

Europe is facing future shortages of diesel... because you can't just decide to use all the oil for diesel. It doesn't work that way. You can only get a certain percentage of diesel out of a barrel.

So the question is, is a 50MPG diesel really any more ENERGY efficient than a gasoline burning Toyota echo? My guess is, it is LESS.

Sure, a diesel hybrid would THEORETICALLY be the best of both worlds.

Problem is, until ULSD or biodiesel or veggie oil diesel are readily available at the Circle K, then there is the logistics problem of how and where to get the fuel for the owners of such vehicles.

For example, a diesel hybrid in Phoenix would be a dirty car because ULSD is not available here yet, and I have not seen any biodiesel pumps either.

Yes, for two reasons. First, diesel engines get 43% of the energy back out of the fuel as mechanical to propel the car. Gasoline engines get only about 25-30%. Second, diesel is a really simple fuel and is easily refined, gasoline takes a huge amount more energy to refine than diesel. This extra energy that gasoline requires for production is rarely talked about or included in calculations.

(As an aside, the amount of electricity that goes into making 1 gallon of gasoline is enough to power an electric vehicle for about 40 miles. Stop making gasoline, and you have enough surplus electricity to run lots of EVs.)

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/ecot.htm

BIO Diesel via algae is the way to go.

http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

Any energy input into the refining of gas is going to show up in the price of gas, right? It must not be that substantial.

To my knowledge, you CAN'T dramatically increase the amount of diesel you get from a barrel of oil vs how much gas you get. We're getting twice the amount of gasoline as we are diesel from a barrel of oil. Isn't it likely that a switch to 100% diesel would then increase the amount of crude we use? And if you can increase the amount of diesel substantially, what price do you pay to do that in terms of energy inputs and net output from a barrel of oil?

The "go diesel" argument doesn't sound too good to me. I think supply/demand is going to keep a proper balance of gas and diesel use in check. If too many people buy Ford F-350s with diesel engines, the price of diesel will go up. I only see two outcomes. If diesel production ramps up to meet the demand of F-350s, there will be a surplus of gasoline. If diesel production doesn't ramp up, then diesel stays high and people stop buying them.

Since for the most part they can't just choose what to turn the crude oil into, our consumption needs to match what is produced.

On a side note, does anyone know how the total system efficiency (refining, burning, engine mods etc, engine MPG.) would be affected if we reduced the sulfur to almost nothing, and got the diesel engine emissions the same for a as a gasoline based vehicle? I'm sure today's gas based engines could be more efficient if we were allowed to spew soot, carcinogens, and all sorts of other pollution all over the place. Gas engines intentionally burn extra gas when starting just to heat up the cats, as an example.