Being green

I love the commercial for the Prius with Kermit the Frog "It aint easy being green". Because it is, using 100 year old simple diesel technology. Below is a chart of the VOC output comparing a 2005 Toyota Prius and a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. On top of the fact that it takes much less energy and emissions (I dont have the figure handy at work) to refine crude oil into D2 diesel fuel than it does to refine it into gasoline. It is also a fact that since diesels extremely lean air/fuel ratios, inherent to the design, they put out far less greehouse gases (HCs and CO2) per mile than a comparable gasoline engine. Add to this the ability for any diesel engine (some built before 1993 may need upgrades to rubber components in the fuel system) to run on biodiesel made from any number of animal and vegetable oils reducing our reliance on middle eastern oil. All this without the extra hassle of battery pack replacement and integrated electric motors. The black smoke (and smell) that you see coming out of some diesels is caused by sulpher added to the fuel to lubricate injection pumps and injectors. This will be going away this September due to a law calling for the US to use ULSD or Ultra Low Sulpher Diesel. Europe beat us to this by years, all they do is simply add 5% biodiesel to the mix and you get all the lubrication you need.

Im up to 205 miles as of this morning and still a tick above 3/4 of a tank.

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VOC emission comparison (including upstream directly responsible for) (per 15,000 miles [~1 year]):

Gasoline-hybrid model Prius (AT-PZEV – using 2005 EPA cert data)

– tailpipe emissions = 0.009 g/mile x 15,000 miles = 135 grams VOCs

- evaporative emissions from vehicle ("running loss") = near zero grams VOCs (PZEV)

- evaporative emissions “sitting” in driveway/garage = near zero grams VOCs (PZEV)

- evaporative emissions while refueling (controlled @ 95% control efficiency) = 15,000 miles/654 miles between fill ups = 23 times x 2.97 g VOC emissions per fill up = 68.3 grams VOCs

- Load loss evaporative emissions (controlled) = 5454 g/8000 gallon transfer; 273 gallons (used in 15,000 miles "combined" mileage)/8000 x 5454 grams = 186.1 grams VOCs

Total VOC emissions directly responsible for – 389.4 grams
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Diesel Jetta TDI Model (2005 Bin 10 auto)

– tailpipe emissions = 0.0123 g/mile x 15,000 miles = 184.5 grams VOCs

- evaporative emissions from vehicle = near zero grams VOCs

- evaporative emissions “sitting” in driveway/garage = near zero grams VOCs

- evaporative emissions while refueling (uncontrolled) = 15,000 miles/522 miles between fill ups = 29 times x 0.15 g VOC emissions per fill up = 4.35 grams VOCs

- Load loss evaporative emissions (controlled) = 20 g/8000 gallon transfer; 417 gallons (used in 15,000 miles "combined" mileage)/8000 x 20 grams = 1.04 grams VOCs

Total VOC emissions responsible for – 189.9 grams

Therefore, Prius is directly responsible for 199.5 more grams or more than twice the VOCs than the TDI.