Amarjit Singh, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA Sustainability of automobile fuels http://obc2012.outofthebox.si/

1. SUSTAINABILITY OF
AUTOMOBILE FUELS
Amarjit Singh
University of Hawaii at Manoa

2. PROBLEM STATEMENT
95% of the world’s
transportation sector relies
on petroleum oil.
The world has 1.3 trillion bbl of
proven oil reserves, being
consumed at 85 million bbl / day.
This will last only 42 years.
With 2% growth per year,
the oil will last 31 years!
2

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Improved efficiency gasoline
engines are only a band-aid
solution
New oilfield discoveries may
add 2~4 years, at most.
An alternative fuel needs to
be found for transportation
in order to avoid a crisis.
3

4. PREMISE
Can only plan for tomorrow
with the technology of today
“Better to fix the known than
wait for the unknown”
(Ancient Arabic Proverb)
4

5. AUTOMOBILES AROUND THE WORLD
MANILA
DELHI
BEIJING
5

6. HANOI SEOUL TEHRAN 6

7. PARIS MOSCOW WASHINGTON
DC
7

8. CONCEPT CARS AND
FEASIBLE CARS
CONCEPT CARS
FEASIBLE
Wind-powered, solar- CARS
powered, flying-cars,
nuclear-powered, Natural gas,
and algae-fueled cars hydrogen fuel
Closer to science cells, biofuels,
hybrid vehicles,
fiction than reality and electric
vehicles 8

9. NATURAL
GAS
9

10. NATURAL GAS FUEL (- NON
RENEWABLE)
 Propane – Uses LPG
 CNG – Burns methane
• Propane • Range is 25%
engines last less than
twice as long as gasoline cars
conventional because of the
engines – lower lower energy
maintenance. content of fuel.
• Performance • Natural gas
is similar to fuels emit
a gasoline- 1/3rd fewer 10
powered car reactive
organic gases.

11. NATURAL GAS RESOURCE
LIMITATIONS
2008-10 Data
No. of cars using natural gas in the world = 11
275,000

12. OIL SHALE, OIL
SANDS, PRESALT
DEEPWATER,
TIGHT OIL, &
ARCTIC
OFFSHORE
12

13. RESOURCE AVAILABILITY FOR “NEW”
AND ‘UNCONVENTIONAL” OILS
13

14. HYDROGEN
FUEL
14

15. HYDROGEN FUEL
HYDROGEN
CARS
Hydrogen internal
combustion engine Hydrogen fuel cell
vehicle (HICEV) vehicle (HFCV)
 Produces nitrous Electrochemical cell 
oxides produces electricity
from hydrogen
 Water is a byproduct
First fuel cell conceived in 1839 15

16. HYDROGEN
BENEFITS
 Zero emission vehicle  Greenhouse gases are
 Electricity, heat, water 95% water vapor
 How much can the
atmosphere hold?
 Very efficient use of
on- board hydrogen  and …>>
 Uses renewable fuel
source
16

17. HYDROGEN CONCERNS
H2 is sometimes
H2 stored in high
infrastructure pressure tanks,
H2 car Pt cells up to 5000 psi.
in USA could
currently malfunction These cause
cost $500
costs below 32 potential safety
billion, but
$300,000 degrees F and storage
manageable issues that have
over 50 years not yet been fully
resolved. 17

18. MIRACLES NEEDED
Dr. Steven Chu: need four miracles for
HFCVs to become reality
1. Cost
2. Infrastructure
3. Fuel cell 18
4. Storage

19. PLATINUM RESOURCE
CONSTRAINT
WORLD USA
Platinum reserves (billion oz.) 1
No. of cars produced per year (million) 50 7.5
Pt in cars produced per year (million oz.) 125 18.75
Pt is depleted (years) 8 53
Amt of platinum needed per car = 2.5 oz for 100 KW cell (typ.)
Recycling Pt will mean that growth will not be accommodated
19

20. BIOFUELS
20

21. BIOFUELS
Most common
alternative fuel
in the U.S. today
1. Ethanol fuel 2. Biodiesel
 Energy from  Energy derived
burning of alcohol from fatty acids
and sugars such as vegetable
oils and animal fats
 Used in
gasoline engine  Used in diesel
engine
Saving the US 304 million gallons of gasoline each year 21
0.21% of annual US consumption

22. ETHANOL
E10 to E100
Emissions reduced by 10% – 30%
Ethanol engines are 67% as
efficient as gasoline engines, which
have only an efficiency of 14% 22

23. LAND ISSUES: CORN
and SUGAR FOR
ETHANOL
Ethanol Gasoline Arable %
Produced Consumed Land Arable
(billion (billion (million Land
USA gallons) gallons) acres) Area
Arable Land in USA 396
Current ethanol consumed 9 24.7 6.2%
Current gasoline consumed 146
Corn ethanol for 250 m cars 219 590 149%
Sugar ethanol for 250 m cars 31 84 23%
23
GGE: 1 gallon of gasoline = 1.5 gallons of CORN ethanol
1 acre of land yields ~ 370 gallons of CORN ethanol

24. SUGAR CANE
ETHANOL
Sugar based ethanol is 7 times more
efficient than corn, but sugar grows
only in warm climates (23% of land
area)
Hence, fuel dependence could shift
from oil-producing countries to sugar-
producing countries in tropical
regions. {Change the WORLD ORDER}
24

25. 25

26. BIODIESEL
26

27. BIODIESEL (GGE = 0.96) - PALM AND SOY
OIL
Through its Biodiesel
Lowers yields 320%
life cycle,
carcinogenic more energy
biodiesel
properties per gallon
reduces
greenhouse of diesel than is
gas fuel by 94% required for
emissions by production
41% (13 times 27
better than
corn ethanol)

28. LAND ISSUES: SOY AND
PALM OIL FOR ETHANOL
Biodiesel Gasoline Arable %
Production Consumed Land Arable
(billion (billion (million Land
USA gallons) gallons) acres) Area
Arable Land in USA 396
Gasoline consumption current 146
Soy Oil for 250 million cars 140 2,000 505%
Palm Oil for 250 million cars 140 280 71%
GGE: 1 gallon of gasoline = 0.96 gallons of biodiesel
1 acre of land yields ~ 70 gallons of soy oil and 500 gallons of palm oil
 Algae research promises to
deliver fuel by using only
28
1.1% of the arable land!

29. HYBRID
ELECTRIC
VEHICLES
29

30. Hybrid Electric
Vehicle (HEV)
POWER ASSIST
STRONG HYBRID HYBRID
 Able to run on just  Runs on gasoline
batteries, just engine, but uses electric
or combination motor for additional
[Toyota Prius] power when needed
[Honda Insight]
Increased fuel efficiency;
regenerative breaking … 30

31. HYBRID CONCERNS
Even if every vehicle
in the U.S. was a
hybrid by 2025,
because of growth in
Still rely on vehicle use, the U.S.
gasoline as the would still need to
source of fuel import the same
amount of oil that it
does today.
31

32. RESOURCE CONSTRAINT:
RARE EARTH ELEMENTS
Toyota Prius is the largest user
• 2.2 lbs of neodymium for electric motor
• 22-32 lbs of lanthanum for NiMH battery
China controls 95% of REEs
• has been reducing exports every year since 2004
• plans to stop exports by 2013
32

33. LANTHANUM
RESOURCES
FOR NIMH
BATTERIES
UM Million
LANTHAN lbs Cars Years
World Reserves 13.2 bn - -
Amount per Prius 27 - -
No. of Cars Possible - 489
Years this can last - - 10
10
Note: Current Production of cars in the world = 50 million/ year
33

34. ELECTRIC
VEHICLES
34

35. ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Avoid use of REE by using AC motor
(Tesla) and lithium ion battery (GM)
35

36. BATTERIES
 AC or DC Motor
 Charging typ. Takes 8 hours
Lead-acid
• cheap, easily available, very heavy
• limited capacity (12 Kwh), limited range
• short life; disposal problems
Nickel-metal hydride (NiMH)
• doubles the range
• long-lasting (RAV 4)
Lithium ion
• twice the capacity of NiMH in half the
weight 36
• (Chevy VOLT and Tesla ROADSTAR)
• Zero emissions while in use

37. LITHIUM RESOURCE
CONCERNS: WORLD
Li in
ground LiCO3 Cars Li runs
(million (million Produced out in
tonnes) tonnes) (billions) (years)
28.4 150 2.14 43
Li in Ocean
(million
tonnes)
238,878 1,261,682 18,000 360,000
0.5% of Li
in Ocean
(million
tonnes)
1,194 6,308 90 1,800
37
•Each car uses 70 kg (typ.) of LiCO3 Ocean mining costs
•50 million cars produced per year $30/kg cf. $8/kg on land
•1 KWh requires 1.4Kg

38. ELECTRIC CAPACITY - USA
U.S. current installed
capacity: 1,031 GW
250 million cars charging
8 kW over 8 hrs each
night requires 250
gigawatts installed
capacity
Charging mostly done at
night when demand for
power is low
Hence, additional
capacity is not deemed 38
necessary

39. EXTENDED
RANGE ELECTRIC
VEHICLES (EREV)
& PLUG-IN
HYBRID
VEHICLES (PHEV)
39

40. PHEV and EREV OPERATIONAL
CHARACTERISTICS
PLUG-IN EXTENDED
HYBRID RANGE
ELECTRIC ELECTRIC
VEHICLE: VEHICLE:
PHE EREV
V
• Runs on batteries,
•The car is but uses an ICE to
essentially an power a generator
to charge the
electric vehicle batteries when the
with a gas- batteries are low.
tank backup. • Engine can be ICE
on biofuel, or fuel
cell … 40

41. PHEV AND EREV CONCERNS
Same electric, ethanol,
gasoline, and fuel cell
concerns as already
discussed previously
41

42. Solutions
42

43. Solution 1:
A Mix of
Technologies
Reduces Lesser
Overall
Use a little
bit of every
strain on trauma for life is
technology
the
resources
technology
changeover
still 161
years
43

44. Solution 2:
Sugar
Ethanol
 Possible Future of Automobiles
 Biodiesel (sugar) powered engines
 Enough biodiesel (sugar) could be grown on 23% of
arable land, which is quite doable
 Will entail major political changes in the world, a
major shift in world power, and major
reprioritization. (Best of luck!)
44

45. SUMMARY
45

46. Li-S batteries
can increase
range by 5
times; Li-air
by 10 times
“PROMISES”
Algae to & 1/10th the
power all US amount of
“HOPES” platinum can
cars can grow
on 1.1% of be used in a
arable land fuel cell
46

47. RUMOURS
47

48. FINDINGS
World dependence on oil is a security
and economical risk for many
countries
The current use of automobiles is
creating a scenario in which the world
will run out of oil and earth minerals
The system is NOT SUSTAINABLE
48

49. A completely new world order will be
necessary
It will be nothing like we are used to
Changes are possible: but strong political
will is necessary, and may come at an
immense cost
49

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51. EPILOGUE
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53. 53

54.  Price: $500 for Horse and Carriage; $200 for
Bullock Cart
 Manufacturing: very easy
 Emissions: nothing to worry about; biodegradable
 Benefits: Fertilizer by-product; leather; oils
 Recycling: not necessary
 R&M: Spare parts not needed; [more veterinarians
required]
 Useful working life: 12~18 years
 Health effects: Return to easy pace of life; reduce
stress 54

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59. We hope
things can
work out!
59