quattro digest, Vol 1 #3109 - history repeating itself (NAC)

[Larry C Leung]

>   1. Re:History repeating itself (NAC) 

One thing many do NOT take note of is the hidden costs of many forms of
portable energy.

1) Diesel is less refined than gasoline - this means Diesel does not
undergo as many distillation processes as gasoline, which means that it
takes a notable amount less energy (and cost, which apparently is no
longer passed onto the consumer) to produce. I am not in the Petroleum
industry, nor do I have any stock in them anymore, nor do I spend the
time browsing the I-net for public disclosures on this, but, perhaps some
lister knows or has convienient access to the cost/gallon and
energy/gallon (prefer Joules/liter but can convert) for both gasoline and
diesel. The energy/gallon of the actual fuel MUST be balanced with the
energy/cost of the production of such fuels. 

2) Similar arguments tend to be ignored in the electrical energy
industry, i.e. Nuclear power plants. The cost of the special build AND
the cost of the mining/refining of nuclear fuels is quite often pretty
high (usually reported) however the cost of the energy/environmental
damage due to mining of the fuels is often ignored. Note: I am not
anti-nuke, but I feel that there is often a bit of bias in reporting the
total costs of things that effect the public. 

3) Crashworth, decent performing Diesel cars for Cheap - VW new-Beetle
TDI (with TONS of headroom, MUCH more than an Impala, but the rear seat
does leave a bit to be desired. Whole lot more style though IMHO)

LL - NY





	
>>From: "George Selby" <gselby4x4 at earthlink.net>
>>true. Have you ever heard of a "less crash-worthy" Mercedes-Benz E300 
>which
>>is slower, running a CDI?
>
>How much does that Mercedes 300E CDI cost, I bet it's a lot more than 
>a 
>Chevy Impala.  You did bring up one good point, you can make a more 
>fuel 
>efficient vehicle as fast and as safe, but it is (significantly) more 
>
>expensive.
>
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>
>>- Oh, that brings us to the rest of your point...:
>>
>> > or burn a fuel other than gasoline (diesel is
>> > usually more expensive than premium gas now, there isn't an 
>infrastructure
>> > for any other type of fuel.)"
>>
>>And what is wrong with burning "something other than gasoline"? 
>Diesel today
>>is every bit as clean, and if not equal to - then very close to be 
>*as*
>>efficient, and there is still a loooong ways to go on the Diesel 
>technology
>>to catch up to the level of research for performance that we are at 
>today on
>>gasoline engines.
>
>
>Nothing is wrong with diesel, but it does contain less energy per 
>gallon 
>than gasoline (which I believe contains the most BTU/gal of any 
>presently 
>readily available fuel source, and the stuff is cheaper than bottled 
>water.)
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