Diesel Engine

Diesel Engine - Page 1/1

►Diesel Engine:

Diesel is a reciprocating engine which uses diesel fuel (distillate) for high-speed or heavy oil (residual for mid- and low-speed engines. Also, dual-fuel (gas and oil) engines are available.

Diesel engine sizes vary from larger, low-speed (100-200 rpm), two-cycle, multi-cylinder, 50 MW 1500-ton engines several stories high, through medium speed (400-700 rpm), four cycle, 2 to 25 MW engines, to small high speed (1000 rpm or more), four -cycle 0.2 to 2 MW engines, with variations of these three basis engine types. Engine lives, assuming average annual operation of 5000 hours, are typically five years for high-speed engines increasing to 20 years for low-speed engines.

Diesel generators, remain a reliable, low initial cost, short term power source. These advantages are bought at the cost of use of restricted types of fuel and relatively high maintenance requirements.

The maturity, modularity and simplicity of field installation makes diesel technology a predominant choice for small remote systems of 100 MW or less.
The medium speed diesel efficiency is comparable to modern gas turbine but are limited to much lower combined cycle efficiencies. Diesel waste heat may be used for hot water, space heating, etc.

Diesel generators play an important role as local reserve, particularly where the transmission tie is radial or of marginal reliability for other reasons.