PRESENTED BY:
L. David Roper.
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Why Hybrid Vehicles?
Emissions from vehicles is causing global warming and human sickness.
Oil extraction peaked in the U.S. in the early 1970s.
Oil extraction is peaking for the world about now.
Natural gas extraction peaked in the U.S. in the late 1970s.
Natural gas extraction for the world will peak within a decade or two.
Hybrid vehicles produce much less emissions and use about 50% less fuel than the average new vehicle in the same class. (Partial-Zero emissions)
Plug-in Hybrid vehicles eventually will be charged at parking locations using renewable energy. They will use at least half as much fuel as do hybrids.
U.S. Oil Extraction
U. S. Oil Consumption and Imports
Natural Gas Facts
The main component is methane (CH4).
Natural Gas burns cleaner than gasoline or diesel. (I used butane/propane @ $0.17/gallon in my vehicle while in college 1954-8.)
Power companies prefer natural gas rather than coal as a fuel because it is cleaner burning and easier to transport by pipelines.
33% of U.S. energy comes from natural gas.
95% of nitrogen fertilizer used by U.S. farmers is made from natural gas. Increasingly being imported because of high prices for U.S. natural gas.
“Natural gas” can be made from sewage and extracted from land fills. Future power stations need to be located at land fills and sewage plants and/or where the heat generated can be used (co-generation).
U.S. Natural Gas Extraction
World Oil Discoveries
World Oil Extraction
World Oil Extraction Per Capita
Eventually the price of oil will approach some asymptote after only the dregs are left to be extracted from the Earth and after humans quit burning it and recycle it instead.
Ethanol as a Fuel
Two mixtures of gasoline and alcohol are available at a few fuel stations in the United States: E10=10% ethanol (101 octane) by volume and E85=85% ethanol (105 octane) by volume. Unfortunately, World production of ethanol for fuel has not been increasing very rapidly.
http://e85fuel.com
All vehicles since the 1970s are capable of burning E10, but filling stations are not widely available.
One could create E10 at E85 filling stations by putting in about 8.35 of gasoline for each gallon of E85, as calculated from:
0.1 = 0.85e/(g + 0.15e)
where e = amount of E85
and g = amount of gasoline.
A list of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV) can be found at http://e85fuele85101/flexfuelvehicles.php .l
In 2006 General Motors made 6 FFVs, Daimler Chrysler made 5, Ford made 5 and Nissan made 1. General Motors and Ford Motor Company are promising more in the future:
http://gmcompany/gmability/environment/e85/index.html
http://media.fordnewsroom/feature_displa...ease=21949
Brazil and Ethanol
khoslaventurespresentations/Biofuels_Dec2005.v3.2.ppt
Ethanol (Brazil) versus Gasoline Prices
(1980->2002 $US/GigaJoule)
khoslaventurespresentations/Biofuels_Dec2005.v3.2.ppt
Brazil sugar-cane/ethanol learning curve
Liters of ethanol produced per hectare between 1975 to 2004
khoslaventurespresentations/Biofuels_Dec2005.v3.2.ppt
Methanol Economy
New efficient ways to create methanol (& dimethyl ether) from methane: 2CH4+O2->2CH3OH
Create methanol from CO2 at power plants and from air: 2CO2+4H2O->2CH3OH+3O2
Use methanol (dimethyl ether) as replacements for gasoline (diesel) and in fuel cells. 2CH3OH+3O2->2CO2+4H2O
Use methanol as replacement for petroleum for hydrocarbon products.
Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy by Olah, Goeppert & Prakash.
Biodiesel Versus Diesel
Both are 15-20% more efficient fuels than gasoline.
Diesel emits more pollutants than gasoline because each molecule has about 5 to 7 more methane units. They can be eliminated by catalytic converters, as they have been in German vehicles.
Biodiesel:
Can be used in diesel engines.
Emits 50% less carbon monoxide and 78% less carbon dioxide than diesel.
Contains no sulfur.
Emits 75% less particulates than diesel.
Emits more nitrous oxides (smog) than diesel, but they can be removed by catalytic converters.
Ignites more readily in an engine but less readily in the atmosphere than does diesel.
Biodiesel may be the transport fuel of the future.
See Biodiesel by Greg Pahl and
http://en.wikipediawiki/Biodiesel and
Biodiesel from Algae
Over 50% of algae mass is oil. Over 30 times more oil per area than other fuel plants (e.g. soybeans).
Both fresh-water and salt-water algae.
Most efficient photoreceptors of all plants.
Liquid environment allows better access to carbon dioxide, nitrogen and minerals needed for growth.
Arid zones are ideal because of high solar exposure.
Locate beside power plants to absorb the carbon dioxide produced.
Commercial bioreactors for producing oil from algae are expected soon.
World Biodiesel Production
Comparison of Biodiesel to Petroleum
Comparison of Vehicle Emissions for Renewable versus Nonrenewable Sources of Energy
What about Coal?
What about Uranium?
~15% of U.S. electrical energy is produced from nuclear power plants. In France it is ~77%.
We will probably run short within the next century.
Safe storage of radioactive waste for tens of thousands of years (well into the next Major Ice Age) is a major problem. See Deep Time by G. Benford.
Use of uranium for Weapons of Mass Destruction, for radioactive terrorism and in warheads of standard weapons (Used extensively in the Gulf War, Bosnia War, Kosovo War & Bush Iraq War) are major problems. See:
Energy Returned over Energy Invested
Wind and Solar Energy Power History
Exponential Fit to World Wind Power
Exponential Fit to World Photovoltaic Power
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using nature's inexhaustible sources of energy - sun, wind and tide. I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
-- Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
2006 Federal Tax Credits for Home Solar Energy Installations
Photovoltaic system or solar hot-water heater (not for swimming pool or hot tub).
Federal tax credit equal to 30% of the systems' cost, up to a credit of $2,000 per system.
Must be installed from Jan. 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2007.
A two-kilowatt photovoltaic system that meets most of the needs of a highly energy-efficient home should cost $16,000 to $20,000 installed.
A five-kilowatt photovoltaic system for a more typical home should cost twice that; it would eliminate the home’s electricity bills.
The “Bible”: The Solar Electric House by Steven J. Strong and William G. Scheller, 1993.
Conservation as a Vehicle “Fuel”
Using proven technologies to improve vehicle efficiency can save half of projected 2025 use of oil in the U.S.
The other half might be replaced by biofuels and “saved” natural gas (more efficient use of electricity).
A 2025 vehicle fleet as efficient as the best hybrid vehicles now available would save one-sixth of projected oil use.