Shell Diesel - Engine demo transcript

Split screen comparison of high and low cetane fuels, repeated twice and clean nozzle imagery.

Ghost outline of a vehicle showing location of the engine.

Existing diesel engine animation.

Image of car engine, move to injector and into the combustion chamber.

Animated ignition

Zoom in on a series of droplets at different stages, starting with droplet with vapour, droplet igniting, smaller droplet igniting, finish with just flame and no liquid droplet to show that a complete fuel burn has occurred.

Zoom in on a series of droplets as before, this time the first droplet has a larger halo of vapour, droplets that have caught fire are burning rapidly, until combustion is complete.  Zoom out to show exhaust with different colour (reddish for lower cetane fuel) to suggest efficiency is lost in energy going out of exhaust.

Injector cleanliness animation

New Improved Shell diesel with Fuel Economy Formula has been designed for extra miles at no extra cost.

New Improved Shell Diesel with Fuel Economy Formula is a unique, new diesel formulation, designed to improve engine efficiency by speeding up ignition for more effective combustion, and by helping to keep the engine clean.

In diesel engines the operating cycle starts with air being drawn into the cylinder.  The upward motion of the piston compresses the air, heating it to a high temperature.  When the piston nears the top of the cylinder, fuel is injected as a number of high-pressure jets through the precisely machined holes in the tip of the injector.

The fuel enters the engine in the form of a fine spray, and the surface of each droplet quickly begins to vaporise on its path through the hot air. Spontaneous ignition takes place without the need for a spark and rapid temperature rise in the combusting mixture increases the pressure in the cylinder, forcing the piston down.

When the piston is close to its lowest position, the exhaust valve starts to open and the exhaust stroke then drives the spent gases out of the combustion chamber, and the cycle starts again.

A closer look at the atomised fuel spray reveals a fuel rich atmosphere around each liquid drop. As the fuel vaporises, it mixes with the hot, dense air and eventually ignites.

When the injected fuel droplets mix with the hot, compressed air, there is a time delay before combustion starts.  This is known as the ignition delay.

New Improved Shell Diesel with Fuel Economy Formula is designed to give a shorter ignition delay, so the fuel can release its energy when the piston is closest to  the top of the cylinder, helping the resulting gas expansion to convert chemical energy in the fuel to useful work at the wheels more effectively.

By contrast, standard diesel fuels may give a longer ignition delay and later combustion leading to reduced combustion effectiveness.

Work specially commissioned by Shell fuels scientists enables this effect to be demonstrated in an operating diesel engine. This slowed down footage filmed with a high-speed camera shows the impact that fuel properties can have on ignition delay, and illustrates the reduction in ignition delay that New Improved Shell Diesel with Fuel Economy Formula is designed to provide.

New Improved Shell Diesel with Fuel Economy Formula is also designed to help keep the engine clean, so helping the engine to achieve better fuel vaporization, further contributing to overall combustion efficiency.

New Improved Shell Diesel with Fuel Economy Formula  is  designed to improve engine efficiency by speeding up ignition for more effective combustion and by helping to keep the engine clean. 

New Improved Shell Diesel with Fuel Economy Formula  – designed for extra miles at no extra cost.