- #1,191
Buckleymanor
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Gasoline might be 1000 denser in energy than methane but that is only it's energy density by volume.To get a more precise picture of a substances energy content you have to take into account it's net calorific value by mass. When you look at that, the difference between gasoline and methane is not much.AJacq said:The idea is intriguing but I am skeptical (just as the author of the article) :
- Gasoline is about 1000 denser in energy than methane : so for every litre of gasoline we want to replace we need to produce 1000 litres of e-gas.
- How much renewable energy is required to produce e-gas energy ? To illustrate my point, let's take a totally hypothetical 2:1 ratio for example purposes... every time we want one extra unit of e-gas we have to built infrastructures that produce 2 units of energy from renewable sources... but renewable sources have variable outputs so extra capacity is required to insure constant production of e-gas, so we get a 3:1 ratio to account for variability... but those infrastructures require energy for fabrication, deployment and maintenance, so we get a 4:1 ratio... in the end would we be using 4 units of energy to make 1 unit energy... I'm not sure that can be sustained long-term, on a global scale.
... and I also may be way off in my reasoning (I'm not a scientist) !