Modern Fuels and Alternatives to IC Engines

Comparison Between
Traditional and Modern
Fuel Vehicles
TRADITIONAL FUEL VEHICLES
• Traditional fuels for vehicles include gasoline and diesel.
Energy Efficiency and Running Cost
• Modern gasoline engines have a maximum thermal efficiency
of more than 50%, but road legal cars are only about 20% to
35% when used to power a car.
• Engines in large diesel trucks, buses, and newer diesel cars
can achieve peak efficiencies around 45%.
• The fuel efficiency of a diesel vehicle is relatively 20% to 25%
better as against gasoline vehicle. But the diesel vehicles
have lower running cost than gasoline vehicles.
MODERN FUEL VEHICLES
• Modern/Alternative fuel vehicle refers to not using traditional fossil
fuels like gasoline and diesel.
• The conventional fuels are able to be substituted by other types of
energy resource, such as hydrogen, bio-fuel, natural gas, electricity
and etc.
Biofuels
• Biofuel becomes popular because of the oil price rising and
energy security requirements.
• World biofuel production rose from 16 billion litters to 100
billion litters in the last 15 years.
• Still, today biofuel only take 3% of total transport fuel.
• But IEA predicts that in year 2050 biofuel will offer 27%
global transport fuel.
• Biofuels can be classified into two types – first generation
biofuels and second generation biofuels.
• First generation biofuels – also called conventional biofuels –
include Ethanol, Biodiesel, Biogas and etc.
• Second generation biofuels – also named advanced biofuel –
manufacture from lingo-cellulosic biomass agricultural residues
or waste.
Energy Content
• Biofuel has relative lower energy density compare with petrol.
• Energy density of ethanol and gasoline is 25 MJ/L and 32MJ/L respectively.
• Biodiesels has a heating value of 37MJ/kg, which is lower than normal
diesel, 45MJ/kg.
Running Cost
• Biofuel vehicle price is moderate and competitive to conventional vehicle.
Biofuel price is influenced by feed stock market, and raw material price
counts 45%-70% of production cost.
• Price of traditional biofuel is not competitive with petrol on worldwide
scale.
• More over advance biofuel costs even 35%-50% more than conventional
biofuel.
Estimated biofuel prices from 2010 to 2050
Electric
• Most of EVs uses electricity motor as engine to drive directly
which could achieve higher energy economy than thermal
vehicles on well to wheel basis.
• The electricity power storage is the main technology
difficulty.
Energy Efficiency and Running Cost
• EVs have higher energy efficiency of 80% .
• The cost of recharge electricity for electric vehicle is much
lower than conventional vehicle due to the high efficiency
drive train.
Comparison of Electric Vehicle and Conventional Vehicle
CNG
• Compressed natural gas is lighter than air which store with
high pressure about 20-32MPa.
• It is considered to be safer than petrol vehicles because
nature gas is lighter and easy release. In addition, CNG
vehicles are more commonly used for light duty vehicles.
Energy Content and Running Cost
• Energy content of CNG is 9MJ/L, i.e. 25 percent of diesel fuel.
• Lowest running costs compared to Diesel and Petrol
LPG
• LPG (auto gas) has high octane value of 105 compare with
normal gasoline 95 that make it suitable for internal combustion
engine.
• The energy security of LPG is equal with biodiesel and higher
than CNG.
Energy Content and Running Cost
• Energy density of LPG is 26MJ/L which lowers than gasoline.
• Energy efficiency of auto gas vehicle is 10-15% lower than that of
diesel vehicles. Hence auto gas vehicle consumes about 35-50%
more fuel than diesel vehicle.
• The cost of running LPG vehicle is lower than petrol due to the
competitive price of fuel.
Hydrogen
• Compared with the petrol ICE, efficiency of hydrogen ICE is
almost same which is about 0.2-0.3.
• Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle can achieve 0.4-0.6 efficiency
which is higher than internal combustion pathway .
Energy Content and Running Cost
• The energy density of hydrogen is quite low which only
5.6MJ/L for compressed hydrogen and 8.5MJ/L for liquid
hydrogen.
• Currently hydrogen vehicles cost is higher than regular fuel
vehicle.
Vehicle performance comparison between hydrogen and gasoline
 Properties of Different Fuels
Chemical Source Physical State Sustainability Running Cost Investment Cost
Structure
Biodiesel Methyl, ethyl Fats and oils Liquid Renewable High Medium
from plants
Ethanol (E100) C2H5OH Sugar crop Liquid Renewable High Medium

CNG CH4 Underground Compressed Gas Unsustainable Low Medium

reserves Production
method
renewable
Electric Li-ion Lithium-ion Coal, nuclear, Electricity Renewable Low High
Battery natural gas, widely spread
hydropower,
wind, solar,
biofuel
Hydrogen H2 Natural gas, Cryogenic liquid Production Low High
electrolysis method
water, Biomass renewable
LPG C4H10, C3H8 Crude oil, Liquid Unsustainable Low Medium
natural gas Production
method
renewable
Gasoline Hydrocarbon Crude oil Liquid Unsustainable Medium Medium