Being pedantic , large container vessels use far more powerful engines than 40000 shp, the largest are in excess of 100000 shp. Unfortunately what with the cost of fuel most of them are running at Eco speed utilising only a fraction of that power. The last container vessel I worked on was reduced to running at 10% power burning approximately 75 tonnes per day as opposed to 270 at full speed. It wasn't all smooth sailing though as the engines were not designed to run at that speed and it caused a lot of problems which I think they are still struggling to get on top of.

Glazed bores and carbon build-up?

I guess they don't get clogged EGR's and DPF's :-D

I wouldn't be surprised. Many of the big marine diesels aree coupled directly to the propeller and at full away are doing something like 100-120 rpm. Slow steaming to save fuel and the piston speed in the bores must be v-e-r-y slow by normal standards. Incidentally some of those engines are so large you could could darn near get your car up a cylinder.

QUOTE:..""you will see that teh vehillces with the biggest engines - and hence most likely to produce the greatest volume of NOX IN TOTAL are:"

But buses and lorries are essential to the economy and society of a large city. Cars are not, to the same extent.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 08/04/2014 at 00:03

Who gives a toss about large cities?

People that live in them? LOL

If diesels are so bad, how come the Government put many small new diesel engined cars in the Band A and Band B VED bracket?

Because VED is based on CO2 and not trace pollutants?

As it is wont to do, the Sunday Times wrote a reactionary and rather ignorant piece about vehicular emissions which basically concluded that real world diesel emissions were grossly worse than those from petrol vehicles.

Diesel and petrol engines have different emission profiles, but it's a bold statement to say that one is worse than the other.