The power of Petrol "Gasoline"

[pgfpro]

It still amazes me how much energy Gasoline has in it and how little is used in a good FE automobile.

An automobile that gets around 40mpg will only use around 68 grams/min or
3 oz/min. Something to ponder.

[Project84]

What has always amazes me is thinking in terms of spreading 1 gallon of gasoline across that 40 miles... or even 5 miles.

[Sludgy]

What amazes even more is that small gasoline engines are only about 30% efficient at full load, and much worse at part load. 70% of the fuel energy is wasted!

[bowtieguy]

Originally Posted by Sludgy

70% of the fuel energy is wasted!

considering thirsty and unnecessary v8s, speeding to red lights, endless idling, etc...i suspect a significant amount more than 70% is wasted!

[imzjustplayin]

I'm amazed that the OP made this post. I was just about to make a post like this earlier this morning. A single gallon of gasoline has 115,000 BTUs of energy.. If you drive a vehicle that gets 15MPG avg over 200,000 miles, you'll have used up 13,333 gallons of gasoline releasing around 1.5 BILLION BTUs of energy or 450 MEGAWATT hours of electricity!!!! Huge amount of energy used just to putt around town which is part of the reason why it's ludicrous to be using so much energy for such a simple task.

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by Project84

What has always amazes me is thinking in terms of spreading 1 gallon of gasoline across that 40 miles... or even 5 miles.

That is pretty crazy when you think about it. I had a epiphany today thinking that there is only so much I can do with the todays ICE to make it more efficient. There seems to be more gains to be made in the drive-train, aero, and weight of the vehicle. There are only so many BTU's in gasoline and think of all the mechanics that the fuels energy has to over come in a ICE to drive the wheels? Its crazy!!!

[pgfpro]

Originally Posted by *************

I'm amazed that the OP made this post. I was just about to make a post like this earlier this morning. A single gallon of gasoline has 115,000 BTUs of energy.. If you drive a vehicle that gets 15MPG avg over 200,000 miles, you'll have used up 13,333 gallons of gasoline releasing around 1.5 BILLION BTUs of energy or 450 MEGAWATT hours of electricity!!!! Huge amount of energy used just to putt around town which is part of the reason why it's ludicrous to be using so much energy for such a simple task.

Well that just proves that great minds think a like.

[pgfpro]

I thought I would share what 39mpg @ 68mph looks like in oz/min in liquid fuel.



This data was from my wife's car from a recent road trip.

If your like me its nice to see a visual of the power of fuel. Then to think it is moving a car at a weight around 3000lbs at a steady speed of 68mph. I know the ICE gets criticized a lot but it is still amazing to me to see that this type of machine can do what it does and last for a long period of time without a whole lot of maintenance.

Now imagine half this amount to achieve 78mpg. "Food for Thought"

[bowtieguy]

many people are visual. a while back i started a thread about the total cost of a vehicle monthly rather than cents per mile. most people really cannot fathom or calculate cpm, but show them what we pay MONTHLY vs what they pay...well, we are a month to month society.

[bowtieguy]

found it...http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=7641