500 mpg Flex-fuel plug-in hybrids?
When the oil embargo hit the world in the 70's, it didn't just affect the U.S.. At the time, Brazil imported 80% of its oil from foreign sources.
Today, Brazil has almost wiped out foreign oil dependency using flex-fuel vehicles (more on this).
The U.S., on the other hand, is more foreign-oil dependent than ever.
While hybrid cars provide excellent fuel economy, the technology could do even more. Hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, have the potential to use electricity to charge their batteries when not in use, which advocates have demonstrated could provide an extra 20 miles of driving per day - without using gasoline.
Thus, instead of 50 - 60 mpg, a plug-in Prius could achieve 70 - 80 mpg, but the potential of hybrids doesn't end there.
According to groups such as the Set America Free coalition, a plug-in hybrid system that utilizes a flex-fuel gasoline engine in its powertrain, rather than a conventional gasoline engine, could achieve 500 mpg if it burned a fuel mixture of 80 percent alcohol and 20 percent gasoline.
That's today's technology.
It is time for American politicians to give up the pork and to start representing average Americans. An energy bill that gives billions to the oil industry is a miscarriage of justice and a slap in the face to the majority of Americans.
Where's the leadership?
Today, Brazil has almost wiped out foreign oil dependency using flex-fuel vehicles (more on this).
The U.S., on the other hand, is more foreign-oil dependent than ever.
While hybrid cars provide excellent fuel economy, the technology could do even more. Hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, have the potential to use electricity to charge their batteries when not in use, which advocates have demonstrated could provide an extra 20 miles of driving per day - without using gasoline.
Thus, instead of 50 - 60 mpg, a plug-in Prius could achieve 70 - 80 mpg, but the potential of hybrids doesn't end there.
According to groups such as the Set America Free coalition, a plug-in hybrid system that utilizes a flex-fuel gasoline engine in its powertrain, rather than a conventional gasoline engine, could achieve 500 mpg if it burned a fuel mixture of 80 percent alcohol and 20 percent gasoline.
That's today's technology.
It is time for American politicians to give up the pork and to start representing average Americans. An energy bill that gives billions to the oil industry is a miscarriage of justice and a slap in the face to the majority of Americans.
Where's the leadership?
Labels: Flex-fuel, Foreign Oil Dependency, Hybrid Vehicles, plug-in hybrids, prius, toyota
posted by Dahcredyns at
8:36 AM
5 Comments:
I very seriously doubt that 500 mgp is a possibility, especially if the contention is that ethanol is the key to this kind of mileage. Ethanol only has about 65% of the energy content of gasoline, and one would expect the mpg to go down, not up, when an ethanol mix is used. In fact, this summer drivers got a double whammy with increased gas prices and reduced mileage due to the ethanol blends that were being required. In addition, focusing only on mpg for plug-in hybrids is not seeing the full picture. Energy is energy, and it must come from somewhere. In this case, it comes from your local utility power plant, many of which currently burn coal, a very problematic energy source with many air pollution issues. You might be able to argue that it is better to concentrate the pollution source for energy production in one place where you can focus pollution control, rather than have it be distributed in the tailpipe of every vehicle on the road. [However, my own energy company, Southern Company, bitterly fights the EPA in court on any attempt to make them clean up their emissions.] In any case, there is no free lunch. Plug-in hybrids are one incremental way to go, but they are not a panacea!
Who cares if only 100 mpg is possible? Is that not much better?
Additionally, the real potential of plug-in technology, in my opinion, hasn't really been developed - we're talking next generation lithium-ion batteries. However, it appears that such technology will be far cheaper than fuel cells.
Speaking of fuel cells, a plug-in fuel cell hybrid vehicle is probably the fastest way to fuel cell vehicles according to many fuel cell developers.
Finally, in terms of energy pollution, according to Argonne Labs, plug-ins would still produce less pollution, as you aren't really using that much electric energy. Essentially, the theory goes, you just need to have enough energy to start driving, then through regenerative breaking, etc, you build your own electricity.
We are not talking about replacing all of gasoline energy with electric energy.
The Brazilian's flex-fuel system is a special case. Brazil derives ethanol from its abundant fields of sugarcane, while the United States utilizes corn. The process of producing ethanol from sugarcane yields an energy balance between 8 to 10 times (output/input). The energy balance as a result of using corn is 1.3 to 1.6 times. In addition, one hectare of sugarcane produces ~2.5 times the amount of ethanol than is produced by same area of corn. Unfortunately, Sugarcane needs a tropical climate that does not exist in the United States.
Despite Brazil's sugarcane advantage, flex-fuel cars exist in order to run both gas and ethanol. The cost of 'sugarcane ethanol', any given day, may be greater than the cost of gasoline on the open market. Although, I doubt this has been the case lately.
HI EVERYONE,
I WONDER IF MAYBE WE COULD FIND SOMEONE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO CONVERT CURRENT CARS TO HYBRIDS, WHILE AUTO MANUFACTURES FIDDLE WITH MAKING NEW MORE EFFICIENT HYBRIDS AT AFFORDABLE PRICES.I CURRENTLY OWN A'08' CHEVY EQUINOX GETTING 23-24 MI A GAL. WOULD CONSIDER SOME SORT OF CONVERSION KIT FOR IT AS I PLAN TO OWN THIS VEHICLE A FEW MORE YEARS.I LIVE IN INDIANA AND HAVE HEARD OF CALIFORNIA CO. DOING THIS TO SOME CARS LIKE MAKING PLUG IN PRIUS AND SUCH,ANY OTHER VEHICLES IN THIS MIX???
THANKS
There have been companies toying with that option, but I haven't yet heard of anything that sounds realistic just yet.
If I do, I'll definitely be writing about it.
Post a Comment
<< Home