Turbo-chargers are 'green' technology

Turbo-chargers - banned by the Formula One racing fraternity years ago because of their performance-enhancing abilities - are now being used to cut emissions and reduce damaging carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel engines.

Turbo-charges increase fuel efficiency by up to 40% and are now being included in 75% of the new models being sold in Europe today. That level could rise to 95% within the next four years, particularly in the more fuel-efficient diesel engines.

In America, turbo-chargers are less widely used mainly because of the aversion that American appear to have for diesel-powered vehicles.

According to Craig Balis, vice president of engineering at Honeywell Turbo Technologies, turbo-chargers are now part of the green technology programmes worldwide because they cut emissions and raise fuel economy.

He says that manufacturers are using turbo-chargers as the "tool of choice" for reducing carbon emissions and points out that a turbo-charged diesel engine can travel 40% further than one without the device. For petrol engines, the increase in travelling distance on the same amount of fuel is at least 20%.

High battery costs

At the huge Frankfurt Motor Show, electric cars and low-emission vehicles have dominated new model launches with almost every manufacturer announcing some form of green vehicle, either using hybrid technology or through new all-electric vehicles.

But industry analysts expect that electric vehicles will not come to dominate the vehicle market because of high battery costs, the lack of infrastructure to charge the vehicles and size of an electric car's actual carbon footprint once the impact of providing electricity to recharge it is taken into account.

Honeywell's turbo-chargers are now used in about 40% of all vehicles with the device and it has helped to raise fuel efficiency levels in marques such as BMW, Volkswagen, Renault, Porsche, Chevrolet, Fiat, Ford and Mercedes.

The cost of fitting a turbo-charger to a vehicle is generally modest allowing its cost to be recovered through fuel-savings in about 18 months or less.

Read more on Honeywell Turbo Technologies.
More on the Frankfurt Motor Show.

About Paddy Hartdegen

Paddy Hartdegen has been working as a journalist and writer for the past 40 years since his first article was published in the Sunday Tribune when he was just 16-years-old. He has written 13 books, edited a plethora of business-to-business publications and written for most of the major newspapers in South Africa.
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