Essay on Automobiles Have Better Fuel Efficiency

Issues of energy conservation in the transport sector are becoming increasingly relevant in the light of the annual growth of energy consumption, degree of negative impact on the environment, and emissions of harmful substances.
In terms of energy consumption growth in 2000-2007, the transport sector yielded only to the industrial one. Energy consumption in the transport sector increased in 2000-2007 by 43%, which made 31,5% of final energy consumption (Energy policy, 2009). The main reason for rapid growth is the increase of liquid fuels consumption in personal vehicles. According the data of ecologists, approximately 70% of emission into the atmosphere of cities is produced by automobile transport (Energy Efficient Cities, 2010).
Automobile transport is the main culprit of toxic air pollution in cities, because that transportation of cargo and passengers in the cities are the most large-scale and popular. However, the modern petrol car engine is not only extremely imperfect in ecological sense, but also primitive as for energy indicators. Its efficiency index is only about 20%, and since fuel now is getting ever more expensive, fuel inefficiency of engines becomes a real devastation not only for car owners. Thus, 80% of money of automobile-owners is used for warming and ecological pollution of the atmosphere (Easton, 2009).
Fuel combustion, allowing us to obtain steam or gas required for the work of an internal combustion engine and rotating an electric generator, is a not very effective process. Indeed, the energy efficiency of such transformation is limited by the second law of thermodynamics, and it is unlikely to be significantly raised above the existing level. The fuel energy efficiency of the most modern steam-turbine power mounts does not exceed 40% (Energy policy, 2009).
Despite the large number of patents and designs on fuel economy and emissions control, the modern car is still far from the energy and environmental excellence; therefore, technologies in the area require further thorough and sustainable development. But for some reasons, engine producers do not hurry to improve their production.
There are various techniques and devices for saving fuel in petrol engines. They include methods and devices of fuel and oxidizer activation, turbo boost, electronic metering systems and electromagnetic fuel injectors, powerful systems of electro-sparking, various homogenizers for improving mixture formation, and others (Solomon, 2010). However, the vast majority of these innovations and developments do not provide significant increase of fuel efficiency of petrol engines. Moreover, because of the complexity of technical solutions, many of these analogs are expensive to implement and therefore not produced massively.
At the same time, fuel consumption of cars with hybrid electric drive or compact cars like Smart is only 5.5 l/100 km. According to the IEA, energy consumption of modern petrol and diesel fuel cars with efficient firing and the system of variable valve timing is respectively 5.4-9.7 and 4.2-7.5 l/100 km. Additional costs of investing into vehicles with hybrid electric power are economically viable if the average annual haul is 12 thousand kilometers (savings 660 liters compared to the same haul of ordinary vehicles) and an average exploitation term is 10 years. Approximately 40% of the technical potential are financially efficient (Energy policy, 2009).
Another innovative approach is the introduction of fuel cells, which convert fuel energy into electricity. Fuel cells may in the near future become a widely used source of energy in transport, industry and households. Previously, the high cost of fuel cells reduced their use to only military and space applications. Fuel cells have no thermodynamic limit for utilization of energy. In the existing fuel cell from 60 up to 70% of fuel energy is directly converted into electricity, and power installations on fuel cells using hydrogen from hydrocarbon fuels are projected with the efficiency of 40-45% (Solomon, 2010).