Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Fuel Efficiency shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Fuel Efficiency offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Fuel Efficiency at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Fuel Efficiency? Wrong! If the Fuel Efficiency is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Fuel Efficiency then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Fuel Efficiency? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Fuel Efficiency and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Fuel Efficiency wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Fuel Efficiency then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Fuel Efficiency site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Fuel Efficiency, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Fuel Efficiency, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

Fuel efficiency, in its basic sense, is the same as thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or Mechanical work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is often illustrated as a continuous energy profile. Non-transportation applications, such as industry, benefit from increased fuel efficiency, especially fossil fuel power plants or industries dealing with combustion, such as ammonia production during the Haber process.

In the context of transportation, "fuel efficiency" more commonly refers to the fuel economy in automobiles, where its total output (range, or "mileage" ) is given as a ratio of range units per a unit amount of input fuel (gasoline, diesel, etc.). This ratio is given in common measures such as "litres per 100 kilometre" (L/100 km) or "miles per gallon" (mileage). Though the typical output measure is vehicle range, for certain applications output can also be measured in terms of weight per range units (freight) or individual passenger-range (vehicle range / passenger capacity)

This ratio is based on a car's total properties, including its engine properties, its body drag, weight, and rolling resistance (friction), and as such may vary substantially from the profile of the engine alone. While the thermal efficiency of petroleum internal combustion engine has improved in recent decades, this does not necessarily translate into fuel economy of automobile, as people in developed countries tend to buy bigger and heavier cars (i.e. sport utilitys will get less range per unit fuel than an economy car).

Hybrid vehicle designs use smaller combustion engines as electric generators to produce greater range per unit fuel than directly powering the wheels with an engine would, and (proportionally) less fuel emissions (Carbon dioxide equivalent) than a conventional (combustion engine) vehicle of similar size and capacity.

Energy-efficiency terminology "Energy efficiency" is similar to fuel efficiency but the input is usually in units of energy such as British thermal units (BTU), megajoules (MJ), gigajoules (GJ), kilocalories (kcal), or kilowatt-hours (kW·h). The inverse of "energy efficiency" is "energy intensity", or the amount of input energy required for a unit of output such as MJ/passenger-km (of passenger transport), BTU/ton-mile (of freight transport, for long/short/metric tons), GJ/t (for steel production), BTU/(kW·h) (for electricity generation), or litres/100 km (of vehicle travel). This last term "litres per 100 km" is also a measure of "fuel economy" where the input is measured by the amount of fuel and the output is measured by the distance travelled. For example: Fuel economy in automobiles.

Given a heat value of a fuel, it would be trivial to convert from fuel units (such as litres of gasoline) to energy units (such as MJ) and conversely. But there are two problems with comparisons made using energy units:





Energy content of fuel The specific energy content of a fuel is the heat energy obtained when a certain quantity is burned (such as a gallon, litre, kilogram, etc.). It is sometimes called the "heat of combustion". There exists two different values of specific heat energy for the same batch of fuel. One is the high (or gross) heat of combustion and the other is the low (or net) heat of combustion. The high value is obtained when, after the combustion, the water in the "exhaust" is in liquid form. For the low value, the "exhaust" has all the water in vapor form (steam). Since water vapor gives up heat energy when it changes from vapor to liquid, the high value is larger since it includes the latent heat of vaporization of water. The difference between the high and low values is significant, about 8 or 9%. This accounts for most of the apparent discrepancy in the heat value of gasoline. In the U.S. (and the table below) the high heat values have traditionally been used, but in many other countries, the low heat values are commonly used.

{]/gallon! align ="right"|    BTU/US gallon! align ="right"|    octane rating|-| Regular Gasoline / Petrol] / Petrol| align ="right"|| align ="right"|| align ="right"|| align ="right"|| align ="right"|Min 95|-| Autogas (Liquefied petroleum gas) (60% Propane + 40% Butane)]| align ="right"|23.5| align ="right"|31.1Calculated from heats of formation. Does not correspond exactly to the figure for MJ/L divided by density.| align ="right"|101,600| align ="right"|84,600| align ="right"|129|-| Methanol (10% ethanol + 90% gasoline)| align ="right"|33.7| align ="right"|| align ="right"|145,200| align ="right"|120,900| align ="right"|93/94|-| [Diesel|-| [Biodiesel (using 9.00 kcal/g)| align ="right"|34.32| align ="right"|37.66| align ="right"|147,894| align ="right"|123,143| align ="right"||-| [Aviation gasoline, naphtha| align ="right"|35.5| align ="right"|46.6| align ="right"|153,100| align ="right"|127,500| align ="right"||-| [Jet fuel, kerosene]| align ="right"|25.3| align ="right"|~55| align ="right"|109,000| align ="right"|90,800| align ="right"||-| Liquid hydrogen, and is around 45.7 MJ/kg for gasoline.) The actual amount of mechanical work obtained from fuel (the inverse of the [specific fuel consumption) depends on the engine. A figure of 17.6 MJ/kg is possible with a gasoline engine, and 19.1 MJ/kg for a diesel engine. See specific fuel consumption for more information.

Fuel economy Fuel economy is usually expressed in one of two ways:



Converting from mpg or to L/100 km (or vice versa) involves the use of the multiplicative inverse function, which is not distributive. Therefore, the average of two fuel economy numbers gives different values if those units are used. If two people calculate the fuel economy average of two groups of cars with different units, the group with better fuel economy may be one or the other.

The formula for converting to miles per US gallon (3.785 L) from L/100 km is \frac{235.2}{x}, where x is value of L/100km. For miles per Imperial gallon (4.546 L) the formula is \frac{282.5}{x}.

In Europe, the two standard measuring cycles for "L/100 km" value are motorway travel at 90 km/h and rush hour city traffic. A reasonably modern European supermini car may manage motorway travel at 5 L/100 km (47 mpg US) or 6.5 L/100 km in city traffic (36 mpg US), with carbon dioxide emissions of around 140 g/km.

An average North American mid-size car travels 27 mpg (US) (9 L/100 km) highway, 21 mpg (US) (11 L/100 km) city; a full-size car SUV usually travels 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km) city and 16 mpg (US) (15 L/100 km) highway. Pickup trucks vary considerably; whereas a 4 cylinder-engined light pickup can achieve 28 mpg (8 L/100 km), a V8 full-size pickup with extended cabin only travels 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km) city and 15 mpg (US) (15 L/100 km) highway.

An interesting example of fuel economy is the microcar Smart Fortwo cdi, which can achieve up to 3.4 L/100 km (69.2 mpg US) using a turbocharger three-cylinder 41 hp (30 kW) Diesel engine. The Fortwo is produced by DaimlerChrysler and is currently only sold by one company in the United States (see external link ZAP). The current record in fuel economy of production cars is held by Volkswagen, with a special production model of the Volkswagen Lupo (the Lupo 3L) that can consume as little as 3 litres per 100 kilometres (78 miles per U.S. customary units gallon or 94 miles per Imperial unit gallon). The last Lupo was built in July 2005.

Diesel engines often achieve greater fuel efficiency than petrol (gasoline) engines. Diesel engines have energy efficiency of 45% and petrol engines of 30%.http://www.volvo.com/group/global/en-gb/Volvo+Group/ourvalues/environmentalcare/products/dieselengines.htmThat is one of the reasons why diesels have better fuel efficiency that equivalent petrol cars. A common margin is 40% more miles per gallon for an efficient turbodiesel.For example, the current model Skoda Octavia, using Volkswagen engines, has a combined European fuel efficiency of 38.2 mpg for the 102 bhp petrol engine and 53.3 mpg for the 105 bhp — and heavier — diesel engine. The higher compression ratio is helpful in raising efficiency, but diesel fuel also contains approximately 10-20% more energy per unit volume than gasoline.http://www.fusel.com/diesel_engines.html

Fuel efficiency in microgravity The energy produced from fuels occurs during combustion. However, how well the fuel burns will affect how much energy is produced. Recent research by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has gained possible insights to increasing fuel efficiency if fuel consumption takes place in microgravity.

The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, because soot tends to rise to the top of a flame, such as in a candle, making the flame yellow. In microgravity or zero gravity, such as an environment in outer space, convection no longer occurs, and the flame becomes sphere, with a tendency to become more blue and more efficient. There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely one given is that the cause is the hypothesis that the temperature is evenly distributed enough that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. CFM-1 experiment results, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2005. Experiments by NASA in microgravity reveal that diffusion flames in microgravity allow more soot to be completely oxidised after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behaved differently in microgravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. LSP-1 experiment results, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2005. Premixed flames in microgravity burn at a much slower rate and more efficiently than even a candle on Earth, and last much longer. SOFBAL-2 experiment results, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2005.

Transportation Fuel efficiency in transportation Vehicle efficiency and transportation pollution Fuel efficiency directly affects emissions causing pollution and potentially leading to climate change by affecting the amount of fuel used. However, it also depends on the fuel source used to drive the vehicle concerned. Cars can, for example, run on a number of fuel types other than gasoline, such as Natural gas vehicle, LPG or biofuel or electricity which creates various quantities of atmospheric pollution.

A kilogram of petrol, diesel, kerosene and the like in a vehicle leads to approximately 3.15 kg of CO2 emissions, or 2.3 kg/L (19 lb/gal). Additional measures to reduce overall emission includes improvements to the efficiency of air conditioners, lights and tires.

There is also a growing movement of drivers who practice ways to increase their MPG and save fuel through driving techniques. They are often referred to as hypermiler. Hypermilers have broken records of fuel efficiency, averaging 109 miles per gallon driving a Prius. In non-hybrid vehicles these techniques are also beneficial. Hypermiler Wayne Gerdes can get 59 MPG in a Honda Accord and 30 MPG in an Acura MDX.

Hybrid vehicles can conserve petroleum fuel and therefore be more efficient than conventional vehicles.

The most efficient propulsion system is electricity, as used in electric vehicles. Currently railways can be powered using electricity, delivered to trains through an additional running rail or overhead catenary system. Any pollution produced from the generation of the electricity is emitted at a distant power station, rather than "at site". Some railways, such as SNCF and Swiss federal railways, derive most, if not 100% of their current from hydroelectric or nuclear power stations, therefore atmospheric pollution from their rail networks is very low. This was reflected in a study by AEA Technology between a Eurostar train and airline journeys between London and Paris, which showed the trains on average emitting 10 times less CO2, per passenger, than planes, helped in part by French Nuclear generation, which however creates its own radioactive waste. European Federation for Transport and Environment (see Petroleum dependence). This can be changed using more renewable energy for electric generation.

In the future hydrogen vehicle may be commercially available. Powered either through chemical reactions in a fuel cell that create electricity to drive very efficient electrical motors or by directly burning hydrogen in a combustion engine (near identically to a natural gas vehicle, and similarly compatible with both natural gas and gasoline); these vehicles promise to have zero pollution from the tailpipe (exhaust pipe). Potentially the atmospheric pollution could be zero, provided the hydrogen is made by electrolysis using electricity from nonpolluting sources such as solar, wind, or hydroelectricity, or from nuclear power. One advantage of fuel cell vehicles is that they can electrolyze water using their own fuel cells, operating in exactly the same closed-loop fashion as any other rechargeable electric battery.

One important factor to keep in mind with electrically fueled vehicles is that even an electric vehicle powered by a coal-burning power plant actually produces far less emissions, consumes less energy, and is cheaper to drive than a vehicle which burns any of a number of many supposed energy sources such as gasoline, diesel, and biofuels. The reason for this is that not only do these fuels burn very inefficiently in the vehicle as compared with the operation of an electric drivetrain, but they all require more energy to produce than they contain, energy that usually comes from a true energy source such as coal or natural gas.

Controversially, it is thought by scientists that where emissions take place in the Earth's atmosphere has an overall effect on climate change. Atmospheric changes from aircraft result from three types of processes: direct emission of radiatively active substances (e.g., CO2 or water vapor); emission of chemical species that produce or destroy radiatively active substances (e.g., NOx, which modifies O3 concentration); and emission of substances that trigger the generation of aerosol particles or lead to changes in natural clouds (e.g., contrails). What this means is that the total warming effect of aircraft emissions is 2.7 times as great as the effect of that carbon dioxide released by an automobile: Aviation and the Global Atmosphere, IPCC

See also

References

External links

Fuel efficiency, in its basic sense, is the same as thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or Mechanical work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is often illustrated as a continuous energy profile. Non-transportation applications, such as industry, benefit from increased fuel efficiency, especially fossil fuel power plants or industries dealing with combustion, such as ammonia production during the Haber process.

In the context of transportation, "fuel efficiency" more commonly refers to the fuel economy in automobiles, where its total output (range, or "mileage" ) is given as a ratio of range units per a unit amount of input fuel (gasoline, diesel, etc.). This ratio is given in common measures such as "litres per 100 kilometre" (L/100 km) or "miles per gallon" (mileage). Though the typical output measure is vehicle range, for certain applications output can also be measured in terms of weight per range units (freight) or individual passenger-range (vehicle range / passenger capacity)

This ratio is based on a car's total properties, including its engine properties, its body drag, weight, and rolling resistance (friction), and as such may vary substantially from the profile of the engine alone. While the thermal efficiency of petroleum internal combustion engine has improved in recent decades, this does not necessarily translate into fuel economy of automobile, as people in developed countries tend to buy bigger and heavier cars (i.e. sport utilitys will get less range per unit fuel than an economy car).

Hybrid vehicle designs use smaller combustion engines as electric generators to produce greater range per unit fuel than directly powering the wheels with an engine would, and (proportionally) less fuel emissions (Carbon dioxide equivalent) than a conventional (combustion engine) vehicle of similar size and capacity.

Energy-efficiency terminology "Energy efficiency" is similar to fuel efficiency but the input is usually in units of energy such as British thermal units (BTU), megajoules (MJ), gigajoules (GJ), kilocalories (kcal), or kilowatt-hours (kW·h). The inverse of "energy efficiency" is "energy intensity", or the amount of input energy required for a unit of output such as MJ/passenger-km (of passenger transport), BTU/ton-mile (of freight transport, for long/short/metric tons), GJ/t (for steel production), BTU/(kW·h) (for electricity generation), or litres/100 km (of vehicle travel). This last term "litres per 100 km" is also a measure of "fuel economy" where the input is measured by the amount of fuel and the output is measured by the distance travelled. For example: Fuel economy in automobiles.

Given a heat value of a fuel, it would be trivial to convert from fuel units (such as litres of gasoline) to energy units (such as MJ) and conversely. But there are two problems with comparisons made using energy units:





Energy content of fuel The specific energy content of a fuel is the heat energy obtained when a certain quantity is burned (such as a gallon, litre, kilogram, etc.). It is sometimes called the "heat of combustion". There exists two different values of specific heat energy for the same batch of fuel. One is the high (or gross) heat of combustion and the other is the low (or net) heat of combustion. The high value is obtained when, after the combustion, the water in the "exhaust" is in liquid form. For the low value, the "exhaust" has all the water in vapor form (steam). Since water vapor gives up heat energy when it changes from vapor to liquid, the high value is larger since it includes the latent heat of vaporization of water. The difference between the high and low values is significant, about 8 or 9%. This accounts for most of the apparent discrepancy in the heat value of gasoline. In the U.S. (and the table below) the high heat values have traditionally been used, but in many other countries, the low heat values are commonly used.

{]/gallon! align ="right"|    BTU/US gallon! align ="right"|    octane rating|-| Regular Gasoline / Petrol] / Petrol| align ="right"|| align ="right"|| align ="right"|| align ="right"|| align ="right"|Min 95|-| Autogas (Liquefied petroleum gas) (60% Propane + 40% Butane)]| align ="right"|23.5| align ="right"|31.1Calculated from heats of formation. Does not correspond exactly to the figure for MJ/L divided by density.| align ="right"|101,600| align ="right"|84,600| align ="right"|129|-| Methanol (10% ethanol + 90% gasoline)| align ="right"|33.7| align ="right"|| align ="right"|145,200| align ="right"|120,900| align ="right"|93/94|-| [Diesel|-| [Biodiesel (using 9.00 kcal/g)| align ="right"|34.32| align ="right"|37.66| align ="right"|147,894| align ="right"|123,143| align ="right"||-| [Aviation gasoline, naphtha| align ="right"|35.5| align ="right"|46.6| align ="right"|153,100| align ="right"|127,500| align ="right"||-| [Jet fuel, kerosene]| align ="right"|25.3| align ="right"|~55| align ="right"|109,000| align ="right"|90,800| align ="right"||-| Liquid hydrogen, and is around 45.7 MJ/kg for gasoline.) The actual amount of mechanical work obtained from fuel (the inverse of the [specific fuel consumption) depends on the engine. A figure of 17.6 MJ/kg is possible with a gasoline engine, and 19.1 MJ/kg for a diesel engine. See specific fuel consumption for more information.

Fuel economy Fuel economy is usually expressed in one of two ways:



Converting from mpg or to L/100 km (or vice versa) involves the use of the multiplicative inverse function, which is not distributive. Therefore, the average of two fuel economy numbers gives different values if those units are used. If two people calculate the fuel economy average of two groups of cars with different units, the group with better fuel economy may be one or the other.

The formula for converting to miles per US gallon (3.785 L) from L/100 km is \frac{235.2}{x}, where x is value of L/100km. For miles per Imperial gallon (4.546 L) the formula is \frac{282.5}{x}.

In Europe, the two standard measuring cycles for "L/100 km" value are motorway travel at 90 km/h and rush hour city traffic. A reasonably modern European supermini car may manage motorway travel at 5 L/100 km (47 mpg US) or 6.5 L/100 km in city traffic (36 mpg US), with carbon dioxide emissions of around 140 g/km.

An average North American mid-size car travels 27 mpg (US) (9 L/100 km) highway, 21 mpg (US) (11 L/100 km) city; a full-size car SUV usually travels 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km) city and 16 mpg (US) (15 L/100 km) highway. Pickup trucks vary considerably; whereas a 4 cylinder-engined light pickup can achieve 28 mpg (8 L/100 km), a V8 full-size pickup with extended cabin only travels 13 mpg (US) (18 L/100 km) city and 15 mpg (US) (15 L/100 km) highway.

An interesting example of fuel economy is the microcar Smart Fortwo cdi, which can achieve up to 3.4 L/100 km (69.2 mpg US) using a turbocharger three-cylinder 41 hp (30 kW) Diesel engine. The Fortwo is produced by DaimlerChrysler and is currently only sold by one company in the United States (see external link ZAP). The current record in fuel economy of production cars is held by Volkswagen, with a special production model of the Volkswagen Lupo (the Lupo 3L) that can consume as little as 3 litres per 100 kilometres (78 miles per U.S. customary units gallon or 94 miles per Imperial unit gallon). The last Lupo was built in July 2005.

Diesel engines often achieve greater fuel efficiency than petrol (gasoline) engines. Diesel engines have energy efficiency of 45% and petrol engines of 30%.http://www.volvo.com/group/global/en-gb/Volvo+Group/ourvalues/environmentalcare/products/dieselengines.htmThat is one of the reasons why diesels have better fuel efficiency that equivalent petrol cars. A common margin is 40% more miles per gallon for an efficient turbodiesel.For example, the current model Skoda Octavia, using Volkswagen engines, has a combined European fuel efficiency of 38.2 mpg for the 102 bhp petrol engine and 53.3 mpg for the 105 bhp — and heavier — diesel engine. The higher compression ratio is helpful in raising efficiency, but diesel fuel also contains approximately 10-20% more energy per unit volume than gasoline.http://www.fusel.com/diesel_engines.html

Fuel efficiency in microgravity The energy produced from fuels occurs during combustion. However, how well the fuel burns will affect how much energy is produced. Recent research by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has gained possible insights to increasing fuel efficiency if fuel consumption takes place in microgravity.

The common distribution of a flame under normal gravity conditions depends on convection, because soot tends to rise to the top of a flame, such as in a candle, making the flame yellow. In microgravity or zero gravity, such as an environment in outer space, convection no longer occurs, and the flame becomes sphere, with a tendency to become more blue and more efficient. There are several possible explanations for this difference, of which the most likely one given is that the cause is the hypothesis that the temperature is evenly distributed enough that soot is not formed and complete combustion occurs. CFM-1 experiment results, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2005. Experiments by NASA in microgravity reveal that diffusion flames in microgravity allow more soot to be completely oxidised after they are produced than diffusion flames on Earth, because of a series of mechanisms that behaved differently in microgravity when compared to normal gravity conditions. LSP-1 experiment results, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2005. Premixed flames in microgravity burn at a much slower rate and more efficiently than even a candle on Earth, and last much longer. SOFBAL-2 experiment results, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, April 2005.

Transportation Fuel efficiency in transportation Vehicle efficiency and transportation pollution Fuel efficiency directly affects emissions causing pollution and potentially leading to climate change by affecting the amount of fuel used. However, it also depends on the fuel source used to drive the vehicle concerned. Cars can, for example, run on a number of fuel types other than gasoline, such as Natural gas vehicle, LPG or biofuel or electricity which creates various quantities of atmospheric pollution.

A kilogram of petrol, diesel, kerosene and the like in a vehicle leads to approximately 3.15 kg of CO2 emissions, or 2.3 kg/L (19 lb/gal). Additional measures to reduce overall emission includes improvements to the efficiency of air conditioners, lights and tires.

There is also a growing movement of drivers who practice ways to increase their MPG and save fuel through driving techniques. They are often referred to as hypermiler. Hypermilers have broken records of fuel efficiency, averaging 109 miles per gallon driving a Prius. In non-hybrid vehicles these techniques are also beneficial. Hypermiler Wayne Gerdes can get 59 MPG in a Honda Accord and 30 MPG in an Acura MDX.

Hybrid vehicles can conserve petroleum fuel and therefore be more efficient than conventional vehicles.

The most efficient propulsion system is electricity, as used in electric vehicles. Currently railways can be powered using electricity, delivered to trains through an additional running rail or overhead catenary system. Any pollution produced from the generation of the electricity is emitted at a distant power station, rather than "at site". Some railways, such as SNCF and Swiss federal railways, derive most, if not 100% of their current from hydroelectric or nuclear power stations, therefore atmospheric pollution from their rail networks is very low. This was reflected in a study by AEA Technology between a Eurostar train and airline journeys between London and Paris, which showed the trains on average emitting 10 times less CO2, per passenger, than planes, helped in part by French Nuclear generation, which however creates its own radioactive waste. European Federation for Transport and Environment (see Petroleum dependence). This can be changed using more renewable energy for electric generation.

In the future hydrogen vehicle may be commercially available. Powered either through chemical reactions in a fuel cell that create electricity to drive very efficient electrical motors or by directly burning hydrogen in a combustion engine (near identically to a natural gas vehicle, and similarly compatible with both natural gas and gasoline); these vehicles promise to have zero pollution from the tailpipe (exhaust pipe). Potentially the atmospheric pollution could be zero, provided the hydrogen is made by electrolysis using electricity from nonpolluting sources such as solar, wind, or hydroelectricity, or from nuclear power. One advantage of fuel cell vehicles is that they can electrolyze water using their own fuel cells, operating in exactly the same closed-loop fashion as any other rechargeable electric battery.

One important factor to keep in mind with electrically fueled vehicles is that even an electric vehicle powered by a coal-burning power plant actually produces far less emissions, consumes less energy, and is cheaper to drive than a vehicle which burns any of a number of many supposed energy sources such as gasoline, diesel, and biofuels. The reason for this is that not only do these fuels burn very inefficiently in the vehicle as compared with the operation of an electric drivetrain, but they all require more energy to produce than they contain, energy that usually comes from a true energy source such as coal or natural gas.

Controversially, it is thought by scientists that where emissions take place in the Earth's atmosphere has an overall effect on climate change. Atmospheric changes from aircraft result from three types of processes: direct emission of radiatively active substances (e.g., CO2 or water vapor); emission of chemical species that produce or destroy radiatively active substances (e.g., NOx, which modifies O3 concentration); and emission of substances that trigger the generation of aerosol particles or lead to changes in natural clouds (e.g., contrails). What this means is that the total warming effect of aircraft emissions is 2.7 times as great as the effect of that carbon dioxide released by an automobile: Aviation and the Global Atmosphere, IPCC

See also

References

External links



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