Future Energy Sources for the Common Car

Patrick de la LlanaDate: 11/15/12

Outline

• Most cars nowadays use gasoline or diesel as energy source.– Gasoline fuels engine by being ignited to produce

small explosions, and transfers energy from driveshaft via transmission.

– Diesel does the same thing as gasoline but in a different manner.

• Most cars use oil for cooling, lubrication, and cleaning of internal components.

Info on gas• Gas and oil are non renewable.• Gasoline averages around 111,000-123,000 Btu

(British Thermal Unit). In America its around 114,000/gal and 18,000/lb.

• Btu depends on source of gasoline, so Btu can vary.

• Btu=1.055 Joules, gets derivation from amount of energy needed to heat 1 lb of water from 39F to 40F.

• Gasoline Engine has about 25-30 % efficiency.

Info on Diesel

• Releases more carcinogens per gallon than gasoline.

• Better mileage than gasoline.• Cheaper to produce than gasoline, but more

expensive due to supply and demand.• Diesel engines most of the time have 45%

efficiency.

Example Btu chart

Diesel Engine

Possible Future Replacements for current energy sources

• Ethanol (Ethyl alcohol aka grain alcohol)• Methanol• Natural Gases• Biodiesel• Electricity• Hydrogen fuel cell• Hybrids

Ethanol

• Ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline.• E85 (commonly used gas combo) uses

Ethanol.• Made from grain (just like moonshine).• Burns cooler than gasoline (safer).• Easy to make.• Higher octane rating than gasoline.

How to make ethyl alcohol

• Grain is crushed.• Grain is then fermented.• Grain is then distilled to remove water.

Ethanol Cons:

• Btu of around 75,000 (for E85).• Extremely corrosive ( specially made tanks

and/or engines, usually out of plastic or stainless steel).

• A lot of farmland to ferment alcohol, and quite wasteful for an energy source.

Methanol

• Methanol is created by fermenting organic matter (most of the time from natural gas).

• Has octane rating of 100. • Because of this, allows for higher compression

and efficiency than natural gas.

Cons of Methanol

• 51% Btu of gasoline, so even worse than ethanol.

• Flammable, and also expensive to produce.• In total not environment friendly because

producing methanol from natural gases causes a lot of CO2 release, making it environmentally useless.

• Corrosive.

Natural Gases

• Produce way less CO2 and nitric oxides than gasoline (60% and 90% respectively).

• Exhaust is cleaner than some cities.• Octane rating of 130.• Obtained by drilling, usually made up of

different components.

Cons of Natural Gases

• Gas has to be compressed to about 3000-3600 psi to be used.

• Btu is 44,000.• Although cheap compared to gas, gives very

little power.• Non Renewable.

Biodiesel• B100 Reduces CO emissions by 75% over regular

petroleum diesel, and B15.• Made from sources other than petroleum, such

as animal fat, fry oil and vegetable oil.• Rely on high compression to raise temperature of

air hot enough to ignite. Does not rely on spark ignition.

• No modifications to diesel type engine needed to use biodiesel, also B100 has Btu of 130,000.

• Higher cetane rating than diesel.

Cons of Biodiesel

• B100 costs about 3.50$ a gallon.• Waxing and solidifying in higher concentration

blends of Biodiesel (like B50 or B100). Fuel must be hot to use.

Electricity

• Require no warm up, cheap to refuel.• Averages 2 cents a mile if going by average of

10 cents per kilowatt hour.• Release very little emissions.• Most hybrids nowadays use electricity.

Cons of Electricity

• Limited Range.• Slow charging, and are unusable when not

charged.• Most cars today get around 100-120 miles per

charge.• Most of US electricity (half) comes from coal-

burning plants.

Hydrogen

• Uses fuel cells which convert hydrogen to electricity emitting only water and oxygen byproducts (very small amounts).

• Abundant and easy to produce.• ZEV=zero emission vehicle.• Gas must be compressed to pressure of about

3000 psi.• Used by modern rockets.

Hydrogen

• Couple ways hydrogen can be used:– Plain hydrogen gas– Liquid hydrogen– Reformer

Sources:• http://www.allpar.com/ed/diesel2.html• http://auto.howstuffworks.com/diesel1.htm• http://

www.deepscience.com/articles/engines.html• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetane_number• http://

energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/index.html• http://www.howstuffworks.com/electric-car.htm• http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/

hybrid-technology/hydrogen-cars.htm

Sources

• http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/alternative-fuel/news/2690341

• http://energyquest.ca.gov/transportation/fuelcells.html

• http://www.solarhighway.org/HydrogenFacts.html

• http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/biofuels/fact_biodiesel.htm