Quote:
Originally Posted by alamostation
Shell Oil is hyping their gasoline as being nitrogen enriched. What is supposed to be good about that?
If I remember correctly from my chemistry classes, you get energy from the combustion of carbon and hydrogen to propel your car. The combination of nitrogen and oxygen is endothermic or neutral as far as energy is concerned. Additionally, it forms one of the pollutants that catalytic converts were designed to remove.
To me, it is like using ethanol, you can't burn the oxygen in the alcohol, so you get less miles per gallon.
On top of that, your car gets plenty of nitrogen, it is about 70% of the air that comes in through the intake.
Can someone explain why nitrogen itself in fuel is a good thing? I can understand nitrous oxide, but I dont think Shell is peddling racing fuel.
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From what I understand - the nitrogen is not being added to the fuel itself, it is being added to the existing detergents. The net effect is that this stabilizes and improves the detergent's life span and performance within the engine, particularly increased stability at higher operating and combustion temperatures. So it makes the detergent additives work better - which helps keep the engine cleaner.
As far as increased emissions, it seems the jury is still out.
I think the potential cleaning benefits may be plausible, however there hasn't been much news on any drawbacks - like emissions.
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Chris
2007 E550 4Matic - 61,000 Km - Iridium Silver, black leather, Sport package, Premium 2 package
2007 GL450 4Matic - 62,000 Km - Obsidian Black Metallic, black leather, all options
1998 E430 - sold
1989 300E - 333,000 Km - sold
1977 280E - sold
1971 250 - retired
"And a frign hat. They gave me a hat at the annual benefits meeting. I said. how does this benefit me. I dont have anything from the company.. So they gave me a hat." - TheDon
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