Best Car Fuel

An ICE car is a vehicle that is powered by an internal combustion engine, which burns fuel (usually gasoline or diesel) to generate power for the vehicle. These cars are the most common type of cars on the road today.

Powering an ICE car with biofuels is an incredibly INefficient use of land. Using solar panels on the same land would power an EV more than 100x further.

The calculations are in the chart, but here they are in more detail.

Biofuels:
➡️ 1 acre of corn yields 450 gallons of ethanol per year (the figures I found varied from 328 to 551 gallons)
➡️ An average car running on ethanol gets 20 mpg
So an acre of corn powers an ICE 9,000 miles.

Solar:
➡️ 1 acre of solar yields 320 MWh per year (figures varied from 200 to 447 MWh)
➡️ An average EV uses 270 Wh/mile

So an acre of solar powers an EV 1,185,185 miles, or 132x further.

That’s not the full story though. Energy must be input to manufacture and install the solar panels. Similarly, corn needs to be grown, harvested and processed into ethanol, all of which requires energetic inputs.

This is where EROI comes in – Energy Return on Investment – and the situation only gets worse for biofuels. Corn ethanol has an EROI around 1.5:1 whereas solar PV has an EROI of 8:1 or more (number vary, but this doesn’t change the overall conclusion that the EROI of solar is far better than that of corn ethanol).

Unfortunately, for decarbonising aviation, biofuels might be our best option. It will certainly be more efficient to electrify as much as possible, leaving biofuels for long haul aviation.

Electric Cars win EV/Solar

Internal combustion engines can also run on hydrogen gas. Hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines work similarly to gasoline engines, where hydrogen gas is ignited in the combustion chamber to generate power.

However, there are some differences and challenges associated with running internal combustion engines on hydrogen gas. For example:

1. Hydrogen is a highly flammable gas and requires specific storage, handling, and safety precautions. Specialized fuel systems and equipment are necessary to safely store and deliver hydrogen to the engine.
2. Hydrogen combustion produces water vapor as a byproduct, which is environmentally friendly. However, it may also produce nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions, which can contribute to air pollution.
3. Efficient combustion of hydrogen gas can be challenging due to its low energy density compared to gasoline. This can impact the engine’s performance and efficiency.

Despite these challenges, hydrogen-powered internal combustion engines are being developed and tested as an alternative to traditional gasoline engines. Additionally, hydrogen fuel cells are also being explored as a clean and sustainable alternative for powering vehicles and machinery.

Sustainable Police transport for inner cities and rural townships

New Electric Bikes for Policing inner Cities – reduced CO2 sustainable transport infrastructure

As of 2021, there are approximately 55,000 police officers in Ethiopia, 100,000 police officers in Kenya, and 30,000 police officers in South Sudan.

Using Connected Vehicles combined with advanced data collection and processing platforms at the network edge, and in the cloud, Orchestrated Connected Corridors provide real-time traffic management capabilities and insights that support a range of innovative safety and traffic mobility use cases. 

Orchestrated Connected Corridors also titled OCCs are the key to improved road safety and advanced traffic management. At Kapsch, we are helping develop a modern digital traffic infrastructure.