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Asked by anon-382775 to Alexander dB, Andrew M, Bruno Silvester L, David B, Kirsty R, Mark E, Martin M, Michael S on 2 Feb 2024.
Question: what tipe of fuel is worse petrol or disel
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Alexander De Bruin answered on 2 Feb 2024:
it depends! Petrol has less energy per litre of fuel, but burns more cleanly. You get more efficiency from a diesel engine, but it burns less cleanly and requires more bits in the exhaust pipe to take the harmful chemicals out before the gas gets to the environment. For what it’s worth, I’ve got a diesel car as I drive long distances fairly often.
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Andrew McDowall answered on 2 Feb 2024:
They both have their problems. Petrol is lighter and more flammable (it catches fire more easily) making it harder to store and handle. It also contains less usable energy, so more needs to used to get the same work from it than would be need to be used if diesel were used instead. This means more carbon dioxide is made in each journey when petrol is used as a fuel by vehicles, It’s why diesel cars used to be popular.
Diesel is less flammable and much easier to store, and contains more energy, so less diesel is needed than petrol, but the way diesel engines work results in the creation of more soot, which is particularly bad for your health, and higher levels of oxides of nitrogen, which are bad greenhouse gases and air polutants. These can be largely cleaned up with the right catalysts, but it would be better not to make them in the first place.
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David Bremner answered on 5 Feb 2024:
If we are talking about as a choice of fuel for cars then there are probably pros and cons for both depending on what you want to do with your car, however neither is as good as walking or cycling whenever we can.
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Mark Eyles answered on 5 Feb 2024:
Neither is great really because they impact the environment negatively. Diesel has a bad reputation now but actually it is a little unfair. It becomes a problem when vehicles are not used or maintained correctly. When this happens it can generate a lot of black soot that is very bad for the environment and people’s health.
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Bruno Silvester Lopes answered on 5 Feb 2024:
Both have positives and negatives. Andrew below has given an excellent explanation. If you want to explore further, you can read more about what biofuels are and how they can help the environment.
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Michael Schubert answered on 7 Feb 2024:
The answers you’ve had are pretty comprehensive! I would say that neither one is great, but which one is better depends on what you want to use it for. In cars, for instance, diesel is better if you do a lot of driving (especially long drives), but petrol is better if you don’t. Like David said, though, walking and cycling are best of all!
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Kirsty Ross answered on 19 Feb 2024:
It depends by what you mean by worse. I drive a diesel car as I travel long distances, and it is better for that purpose. However, a quick trip to the shops in a diesel car isn’t great, as the engine doesn’t warm up enough. We normally switch to our electric car for shorter journeys, as it is about 1/3 the price per mile (and fewer CO2 emissions).
Comments
Sheridan commented on :
Of course we now get into the argument as to whether electric cars are better once you take into account manufacturing costs, electricity generation, weight of the car with its subsequent tyre wear causing polution form tyre particles, road wear and road maintenance cost etc. Road wear is a 4th power law which means if you double the weight of a car you create 16 times as much wear!
It’s a can of worms?
I drive petrol cars that have done over 100,000 miles and still can’t work out when I should replace them for causing the least pollution.