Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions and Noise

Abstract

The upsurge of interest in environmental quality during the 1970s has resulted in much existing and proposed legislation for diesel exhaust emissions and noise. The bulk of this legislation is aimed at vehicles, but stationary power sources are not immune. The movement towards current legislation had two separate sources. First came general public hostility to the black smoke emitted from a substantial number of diesel engined trucks in the United Kingdom and Europe, followed by complaints directed at all noisy transportation means (aircraft, diesel trucks, cars and motorcycles). Meanwhile, in the United States the public nuisance of the Los Angeles ‘smog’ prompted the start of a major series of environmental quality laws. Although the number of diesel engined vehicles is increasing in the United States, the total proportion of vehicles so equipped (relative to petrol engines) remains low compared with that in Europe. Thus it was the petrol engine rather than the diesel engine that was originally singled out for criticism.