5 ms·

I had an Indian friend tell me 30 years ago that a lot of the smog in large cities is from running motorbikes on kerosene.

by prirun 4y ago

liotier 4y ago
Motorbikes in general, especially the cheap 125 cm^3 that are ubiquitous in the developing world, pollute horribly - especially relative to the power they generate. I wonder when electric power trains will get cheap enough to replace them. Today, a rather bad electric-assisted bicycle is about the same price - so no one will buy one when for the same price they can get the rugged underpowered noisy smog-spewing mule that bears all the light duty transport imaginable and that everyone knows how to maintain.
- johannes1234321 4y ago
  > wonder when electric power trains will get cheap enough to replace them. You don't only need the power train, but also a power network capable of charging those.
  - Someone 4y ago
    In India, solar charging of mopeds might work good enough without a network, but I fear population density (10,000 per km²) and, ironically, the smog are holding that back. Solar might also be problematic in the monsoon season.
    - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
      Monsoons are pretty windy though.
gautamdivgi 4y ago
The auto rickshaws and two-wheelers are polluting, but I don’t think they’re a primary cause of Delhi’s smog. That’s probably industry and agriculture. The buses were heavily polluting as well. I know there was a major push to get cabs, auto rickshaws and buses onto LNG. I haven’t kept track of how much that has happened.
jabl 4y ago
AFAIK it's not that kerosene per se is such a poor-burning fuel. Kerosene is heavily subsidized, so that poor people can afford to cook. So gas stations blend in the cheap kerosene into the gasoline. The effect is that it lowers the octane, so the engines need to be detuned compared to what we might be used to in the West. And since modern engines are pretty finely tuned and finicky, might well be that detuning them causes an increase in emissions. Also, I think the pollution comes more from lots of old and poorly maintained vehicles with little or no pollution abatement equipment like catalytic converters.

I had an Indian friend tell me 30 years ago that a lot of the smog in large cities is from running motorbikes on kerosene.

by prirun 4y ago

I had an Indian friend tell me 30 years ago that a lot of the smog in large cities is from running motorbikes on kerosene.

liotier 4y ago

Motorbikes in general, especially the cheap 125 cm^3 that are ubiquitous in the developing world, pollute horribly - especially relative to the power they generate. I wonder when electric power trains will get cheap enough to replace them. Today, a rather bad electric-assisted bicycle is about the same price - so no one will buy one when for the same price they can get the rugged underpowered noisy smog-spewing mule that bears all the light duty transport imaginable and that everyone knows how to maintain.

johannes1234321 4y ago
> wonder when electric power trains will get cheap enough to replace them. You don't only need the power train, but also a power network capable of charging those.
- Someone 4y ago
  In India, solar charging of mopeds might work good enough without a network, but I fear population density (10,000 per km²) and, ironically, the smog are holding that back. Solar might also be problematic in the monsoon season.
  - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
    Monsoons are pretty windy though.

gautamdivgi 4y ago

The auto rickshaws and two-wheelers are polluting, but I don’t think they’re a primary cause of Delhi’s smog. That’s probably industry and agriculture. The buses were heavily polluting as well. I know there was a major push to get cabs, auto rickshaws and buses onto LNG. I haven’t kept track of how much that has happened.

jabl 4y ago

AFAIK it's not that kerosene per se is such a poor-burning fuel. Kerosene is heavily subsidized, so that poor people can afford to cook. So gas stations blend in the cheap kerosene into the gasoline. The effect is that it lowers the octane, so the engines need to be detuned compared to what we might be used to in the West. And since modern engines are pretty finely tuned and finicky, might well be that detuning them causes an increase in emissions. Also, I think the pollution comes more from lots of old and poorly maintained vehicles with little or no pollution abatement equipment like catalytic converters.