[AR] fuels (was Re: 2.6004.pdf)

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 9 Jul 2020 01:22:31 -0400 (EDT)

On Wed, 8 Jul 2020, roxanna Mason wrote:

Well, once the solid state battery and supercapacitors are perfected the internal combustion engine will become obsolete along with its highly toxic, carcinogenic, flammable fuel - Gasoline. Not sure about diesel engines though, I guess them too.

Somewhat, maybe. For ordinary consumer vehicles, quite possibly. For locomotives and long-haul trucks, I have my doubts. For aircraft and portable generators (emergency and otherwise), almost certainly not. To say nothing of rockets! :-)

Unless we get really major breakthroughs in battery technology, chemical fuels will be distinctly hard to replace for some things. Biofuels or synthetic hydrocarbons (with the carbon coming from CO2) are almost certainly a better answer for the more difficult cases.

Henry

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