Gregory's ServerAn interesting fact I learned is that internal combustion engines are so inefficient that you could charge an average electric vehicle using a coal powerplant, and even with all the energy lost to transformers, power lines, charging, etc, it'd still be more efficient than an average gas powered car, even if you ignore the entire petroleum refinement and distribution process.
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 @malwaretech yup. combustion engine efficiency gets a lot worse when you have to keep them compact and lightweight. they're a bit less awful when you scale them up to oil tanker sized ones, but then they go and spoil it by running them on HFO. @gsuberland I knew they'd be bad but some getting only 12% efficiency brand new is mindblowing @malwaretech sounds about right given the sheer amount of thermal power they dissipate through the radiator and exhaust gases.  @gsuberland @malwaretech One reason the Prius is so efficient despite being a gas only car is that the engine can be designed for a very tight, well defined operating envelope. @gsuberland @malwaretech yep, using the kinetic energy of expanding gasses is straight up the least efficient way of converting petrol into momentum, it's basically a side effect of combustion, most of the released energy is heat. Yup. It's why you need all that other stuff under the hood, fan, fan belt, radiator, hoses carrying coolant, and especially why it's a really bad idea to grab the tailpipe! Never mind what happens if your radiator blows a hole and you don't turn the engine off immediately. @malwaretech and then you have the future like where Finland is already where most electricity is renewable or nuclear, 21gCO2e/kWh. https://www.fingrid.fi/en/electricity-market-information/real-time-co2-emissions-estimate/   @malwaretech   @malwaretech now, if only I could find an EV that's capable of being modified to fit hand controls and possibly my wheelchair  @malwaretech Yeah. And that demonstrates how amazingly energy dense gasoline is; even with all of that inefficiency, gas cars (and likewise ICE airplanes, and the like) can easily have range that far exceed electric with motors that run into the high 90's percent efficiency. They don't call oil black gold for nothing. Even when used incredibly inefficiently, it still pack in more energy per unit volume or mass than anything else practical to use. |
@malwaretech And hydrogen and synthetic fuels are also very inefficient. You can't produce enough, it's expensive and you would need those for different things than running a car.