EFFICIENCY, MILEAGE, and OIL CONSIDERATIONS
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008POST BY JOHN A. COZBY
The portion of fuel converted to work by a heat engine is its efficiency. A gasoline internal combustion engine is about 20% efficient. When a gallon of gasoline is burned in an automobile, less than one quart of the fuel is used in moving the car; more than three quarts are wasted by the engine. Even the hybrid automobile relies on an engine that is wasting 80% of the fuel, hence any significant mileage improvement is severely limited.
One of the advantages of the advanced Rankine cycle engine is that it can be made much more efficient than any internal combustion engine. The fuel savings by reducing waste is great.
Mileage is primarily a factor of engine efficiency, but actual mileage is also influenced by many secondary factors besides the efficiency of the engine. The purpose of the hybrid automobile is based upon this principle.
The advanced Rankine cycle engine incorporates numerous characteristics and has many inherent qualities that contribute to better mileage in addition to the better thermal efficiency of the Rankine engine alone. Mileage increase from the increased efficiency of the Rankine engine will be in the range of two and a half to three times that of the internal combustion gasoline engine. The secondary factors increase the actual mileage to a range of over three times that of the present gasoline automobile.
Congress has just passed a bill and President Bush signed into law legislation that mandates a mileage increase of 40%. This new law is praised as a monumental step. How pathetic it is when 300% or more can be realized, and an increase of this great a magnitude is required to solve our present dilemma. Climate Change / Global Warming, Air Pollution / Ground Level Ozone, Global Terrorism, Foreign Oil Dependence, National Security, and A Healthy Economy are the core issues at stake here.Gasoline is made from oil. It takes about two barrels of oil to produce one barrel of gasoline. Because the advanced Rankine cycle engine is capable of using bio-mass, bio-diesel, coal, geo-thermal, syn-fuel, ethanol, and solar the need for oil will be further diminished. The demand for oil will decrease by as much as 80%, bringing the price of oil to an all time low, boosting the economy, and reducing funding for terrorism. The impact will be global.
The supporting evidence for these extraordinary statements are covered in the points outlined in the following seven sections.
I. The Advanced Rankine Cycle and the Gas Laws, page 2
II. The Efficiency Controversy, page 2
III. The Power Factor in Addition to the Gas Laws, page 4
IV. Ideal and Realizable (Actual) Efficiencies, page 5
V. Factors Beyond the Direct Engine Efficiency, page 5
VI. Efficiency Loss At High Output, page 7
VII. Engine Costs, page 7