We live in age of time where there is constant technology advancements and discoveries, One of the emerging advancements in the on road trucking field is replacing diesel engines with compressed natural gas engine. I will be covering the pros and cons of each engine along with relevant information on their design. I will begin with the history behind both engines.
The first natural gas vehicle was first invented in 1860 by an unknown inventor, though it was known that the inventor was also experimenting with vehicles powered by hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, but nothing ever came of these experiments. The first time Natural gas was used for transportation starting in the 1930s. As World War Two started scientists and resources were sent elsewhere to contribute to the war effort, and fossil fuels remained the dominant fuel since it was a reliable and widely known technology whereas Natural gas engines were still in the experimental stage. The next time that natural gas engines made an appearance was during the 1960s and 1970s oil and energy crisis, but instead of focusing the efforts of the American people on developing a new energy program it was decided to pursue efforts to increase production of oil. Natural gas engines disappeared until recently making a comeback. The history of diesel engines is much more notable first being invented in 1876 by Rudolf Diesel basing his engine on the engine designed by Nikolaus Otto with an objective to increase thermal and fuel efficiency. Rudolph Diesel's third successful engine was tested in 1897. The engine was a one cylinder, four stroke, water cooled and air injection engine with an output of 20 horsepower. Today this is nothing compared to current diesels especially considering the engine was 19.6L displacement. Although this isnt considered highly useful now back then in (1897) it was astonishing because the engine had 26.2% efficiency. Every Diesel today is based off of his initial discovery, hence why they are called Diesels.