Alt text:

An idling gas engine may be annoyingly loud, but that’s the price you pay for having WAY less torque available at a standstill.

  • cron@feddit.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    5 months ago

    Renewable fuels exist and are used today, but the efficiency and pollution aspects still apply.

    • Revan343
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      If you’re making your diesel from CO2 pulled from the air, pollution aspects don’t really apply (at least, CO2 emission issues don’t, there’s still NOx, but that’s what cat piss is for).

      Problem is, converting atmospheric CO2 back into fuel makes the efficiency issue drastically worse. Maybe with enough solar panels and windmills, and use the Fischer–Tropsch process with the excess energy that the grid isn’t consuming.

      Of course, that would be for mobile fuel, if solar plants were going to do anything like that for later use generating electricity during peaks, making diesel is dumb; you’d want to use hydrogen or ammonia for in-place energy storage.

      • cron@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        5 months ago

        I was thinking about fuels like HVO. They work well, but have their own ecological implications.

        • Revan343
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Ah. I’m generally skeptical of any plant-based ‘green fuel’ because they generally take up agricultural capacity that would otherwise be producing food