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Energy density of diesel is higher but it emits more crap. Renewably producible combustibles like methane would be a cool alternative.
by AYBABTME 3y ago
Energy density of diesel is higher but it emits more crap. Renewably producible combustibles like methane would be a cool alternative.
- kijin 3y agoEthanol fits your bill perfectly. It is liquid like gasoline, easy to produce, easy to transport, and burns cleanly. It doesn't release any carbon into the atmosphere that wasn't already there, assuming you got it by fermenting plant matter and used renewable energy for distillation. Only problem with ethanol is that it directly competes with human food production.
- coderenegade 3y agoMethanol also works, and doesn't compete with food production. You can make ethanol catalytically if you want, but you have to make methanol first.
- xedrac 3y agoAnd it gums up your engine more than gasoline does. Although this problem can be mitigated somewhat.
- hcarvalhoalves 3y agoIt's the opposite – it's gasoline that causes carbon deposits on the engine, and ethanol acts as a detergent.
- hcarvalhoalves 3y agoEthanol has some issues: - If large areas are deforested for sugar cane plantation, not only CO2 is released but the capacity of fixing future CO2 as well. - Large scale sugar cane plantations demand synthetic fertilisers, which come from fossil fuels. - Ethanol burning still produces toxic gases like NOX.
- AYBABTME 3y agoCan you make ethanol from thin air, such as with the Sabatier reaction? I like the fact that you can take electrical energy input, atmosphere, and get methane. This means I could convert excess solar into a mass and volume dense combustible, and then retrieve some of the store energy back later. Personally I'm principally nerding out about energy storage for sailing cruising yachts. But I have by no means done an exhaustive search of the space.