Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Synergy between ethanol, CHP, and electric cars

I agree with the linked article that we chould make more use of combined heat and power (chp) production and natural gas, but I do not agree with pitting these technologies against ethanol. CHP can be combined with ethanol production for greater production efficiency. On the use side, most people are going to want liquid fueled engines in combination with plug-in electric in order to extend the range. Ethanol or other high octane biofuels could be the perfect fuel for this application. A small engine running at a consant speed just for battery recharging can be optimized to make the best possible use of ethanol, thereby increasing efficiency of the system. There would be little or no fuel economy deficit when using ethanol in an optimized engine. 

CHP Electricity Powers Cars 22 Times Farther Than Ethanol! - Renewable Energy World

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