Fossil Fuel Use for Transportation Systems

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Fossil Fuel Use for Transportation Systems 15

11/1/11           

This lecture was about energy consumption through our transportation systems. Cars move because of an internal combustion engine which runs on different types of fuels, all engines take in some sort of fuel to provide us with a source of movement or electricity, in other words a transfer of energy.

The story of the automobile starts in 1867 with the invention of the first internal combustion engine, invented by Nikolaus Otto. Once the first internal combustion engine was made it was only a matter of time before it was placed into a car, this was done in 1885, by Karl Benz. Cars became the new item that everyone had to have and that trend has continued even today. In 1900 there were around 0 cars per thousand of the people in the United States, in 1950 it was about 300 cars per thousand people, and then in 2000 it was about 800 cars per thousand people, in 2020 it is expected that 9 out of 10 people will have a car.

Obviously with so many people owning cars the amount of the energy consumption in the United States for cars will go up, cars take about 23% of the 29% consumption for transportation. When you look at the US transportation energy consumption by mode light vehicles, otherwise known as cars, take up 63% of the energy consumption. To take down consumption of oil it might help if we increase the miles per gallon of gas we use, but we have been going in the opposite direction recently. In 1997 the Honda Accord weighed 2000 pounds and had a mpg of 32 in the city and 46 on the highway, in 2008 the new Honda Accord weighed 3567 pounds and had a gas millage of 19 in the city and 29 on the highway. Although cars seem to be going in the opposite direction vehicle efficiency continues to rise, so why is mpg going lower? Well it is because we are adding lots of heavy things to our cars making our mpg go down. There is hope in the near future for higher mpg, we may see cars that are similar to XL1, Volkswagen which is said to get about 261 mpg.

Cars are not the only thing that uses our fossil fuels, ships do too. Around 90% of world trade is done by using ships. Ships are the most effective way to transport items using only .06 kWh/ton-km, where airplanes use 4.07 kWh/ton-km. We are always trying to become more efficient and that is what makes the future so exciting.

Fuel economy- Number that corresponds to the amount of miles that a vehicle can travel on a gallon of gasoline, referred to as miles per gallon (MPG).

Transmission- The mechanism by which power is transmitted from an engine to the wheels of a motor vehicle.

ENSC110 Craig Fossil Fuel Use for Transportation Systems 15