It's the all-new diesel, naturally
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, but you can make diesel without crude oilThe next-generation diesel is here. Under the cheetah-liveried skin of this Mercedes ML is a new-age powerplant designed to run on GTL (Gas-To-Liquid), which is basically the process of converting natural gas into a liquid form to be run in diesel engines.
The benefits are manifold. Firstly, there is no scarcity of natural gas, unlike the case with crude oil, supplies of which are finite. GTL also has a higher cetane (the diesel equivalent of octane) rating than the diesel fuel sold at pumps.
While most regular diesel has a cetane rating of around 50, diesel with GTL blended in can be up around the 60 mark. According to Euro sources, Audi's R10 Le Mans racer runs on Shell V-Power diesel with GTL blended to maximise its performance potential. The car won Le Mans last year, so the formula obviously works.
In addition to generating more power, GTL is believed to deliver quieter operation and lower emission levels. That said, fuel economy is said to suffer by about five per cent.
The fuel is purely experimental at this stage, and the M-Class pictured here (and another one like it) were by donated by Sasol Chevron to the De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust in South Africa. Appropriately, the vehicles come with a cheetah-inspired paint scheme.
Don't expect to see GTL offered for mass consumption anytime soon, though. A Sasol Chevron spokesman was quoted as saying it could be a decade before a mass-market GTL-powered car makes it to showrooms.
However, the spokesman goes on to say that GTL-diesel blends will be on the market much sooner to help some of the low quality diesel comply with the requirements of modern oil-burning engines.
Sasol Chevron recently opened its first dedicated GTL plant in Qatar in the Middle East, and another one in Nigeria is in the works. Rivals aren't sitting on their hands either as Shell, BP and Exxon are all working on GTL.
And closer to home, trials to convert Latrobe Valley (Vic) brown coal to a diesel substitute have proven promising. The process is not new – it was first developed in 1925 -- but a commercially viable plant could be up and running in around ten years says operator, Monash Energy.
Monash Energy has plans in place to produce around 60,000 barrels a day of which 80 per cent would be ultra-low sulphur content automotive diesel.
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