Miles per Litre. A tale of mixed marriages.;) (and thank god we're not talking nautical miles here!)

And so, I convert....bzzzz.....bing!:

30 Miles per Gallon (US) is thus equivalent to 7.9 Miles per Litre on dry ground.:laugh3: The US vehicle "fleet" (dry fleet, no sailing vessels) gets a pathetic 5.3 Miles per Litre, but an improved vehicle could attain 38 Miles per Litre, with just basic technological improvements.

Next up: ISO standards for older measures!

 

We should use cars powered by feet.

Cars powered by feet would help, but our economy would only be inching along!:P I like what they do in San Diego - they put up a low cement barrier to keep autos from hopping into the bike lane, and this makes it very safe for cyclists. Would be nice to see that everywhere.

http://cleantechnica.com/2008/07/25/new-technology-can-turn-heat-waste-into-electricity/

 

Making inefficient internal combustion engines 60% more efficient.

:)Aha! Glad you put that one up, Jay! Yes, the IC engine is a dinosaur in need of some wings. I think even Etienne Lenoir would be shocked (were he alive today) to see how little has changed with the basic internal combustion engine design; so the improvements in efficiency have been long overdue!

With doubling on the efficiency, and another doubling of aerodynamics, the auto should soon take flight.;)

something on climate, if you're interested: www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/heat/

Well, I took a look at it - something I had seen before, when searching for a thermoelectric solution. Thallium-doped lead telluride is somewhat exotic, but perhaps the devices would not need to be too large.

 

What I had been investigating were engine design changes to allow for full expansion of the hot combustion gases, and get a doubling of the efficiency that way. The Miller effect, in essence. Other engine design changes that have been tried include scavenging heat from the cylinder walls by using a 3rd cycle where water mist is sprayed into the hot cylinder, creating stream, and at the same time reducing the need to cool the cylinder via a water jacket. If both were combined, I would imagine the efficiency could jump quite dramatically as well.

I like the thermoelectric approach for hybrid home heating systems - I had thought about that as a means to get both electric and heat from a given fuel source; the source could be pellets of waste paper fibers, wood chippings, etc., and used efficiently for both heat and light.

 

It's been 128 years since the Internal Combustion Engine has had a major overhaul! Here are a few places working on the solution (to double the efficiency of Auto engines):

Atkinson Engine : http://ernsblog.com/engineeff.html

Japanese car with Miller cycle engine: www.autobloggreen.com/2007/05/31/japanese-market-mazda2-gets-new-miller-cycle-engine/

Engine Efficiency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency

Crower six stroke (uses water to turn engine waste heat into power) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_stroke_engine

Scuderi split-cycle engine: www.scuderigroup.com