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The World's Most Powerful Diesel Engine
trex279 writes "The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the world's most powerful diesel engine built to date. Each cylinder displaces a whopping 111,143 cubic inches (1,820 liters, equivalent to a cube 4 feet on a side) and produces 7,780 horsepower. The engine is about the size of a small building." The engine is intended for use in container ships.
Wärtsilä is a finnish company. But then there are some people who think that Nokia is japanese as well so I guess you're in good company :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rtsil%C3%A4
Are two stroke diesels as dirty running as two stroke gas engines?
No. The thing that makes gasoline two-stroke engines so dirty is the fact that they are generally valveless, combined with the fact that they burn their own lube oil, deliberately. The goal of a gasoline two-stroke engine is to reduce parts count and weight, which is why they are found on weed whackers, chainsaws, lawn mowers and snowmobiles.
A two-stroke diesel is generally not intended to reduce weight, or parts count, but size. They are not valveless, and they do not burn their lube oil. Once you get up into the 2000HP+ range, it's pretty much the only way to make the engine a manageable size.
This engine is about twice the power of the (also two stroke) engines found on rail locomotives. Those engines take up about 2/3 of the locomotive's length (the other 1/3 is generator) To get the same output in a 4-stroke engine would require an engine twice the physical size. Think about how physically large a locomotive is and contemplate that.
www.wavefront-av.com
Large engines often have multiple cylinder configurations so the customer can choose how many they want based on their need, so it's often better to list the power per cylinder than for the entire engine.
boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse
Conversion of heat into any other type of energy achieves it's maximum at 33% (the other 66% heats up the environment, according to the Laws of Thermodynamics).
No, the maximum efficiency for a heat engine is given by 1-T(low)/T(high) (absolute temperatures), which can be higher than 33%. If you can make T(high) high enough, and T(low) low enough, you can get 99% efficiency, or 99.9% efficiency, or whatever you like.
Arguably, these laws have not been proven, and they can't ever be proven. But they have been unchanged for quite some time now.
No, actually they have been proved, mathematically, within their realm of applicability, and to within the level of statistical certainty that's inherent in them (which is not an issue for a macroscopic device).
A breakthrough like this would not go unnoticed and thanks to my thermodynamics professor I would be the first one to hear about it (he's a nut about engines). So I think that part of the article is something someone tried to spike in to give the engine more of a wow-factor
No, the problem is just that you don't understand thermodynamics.
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When talking about engines, "Diesel" is the thermodynamic cycle, not an indication of the fuel. A jet engine runs on the Brayton cycle. There are lots of Diesels out there that run on fuel that looks nothing like the #2 FO that you have to run your diesel trucks or heats your home. HFO (heavy fuel oil) is closer to a tar and if you buy your oil from a disreputable dealer, sometimes they mix in old lube oil which isn't anything like FO and has all sorts of nasty crap in it.