Automobiles Waste 60% of Gasoline Power into the Atmosphere (June 2019)

This month, an intriguing piece of industrial news was reported:

Honda aims for world-leading engine efficiency of 47%, target for the 2020s | Nikkei xTECH

The article states:

“In 2018, Honda achieved a maximum thermal efficiency of 40.6% with the 2.0L gasoline engine used in the Accord Hybrid. Looking ahead, the company is developing toward a goal of achieving both a maximum thermal efficiency of 45% and a specific output of 80 kW/L.”

If that is the case, then the cars currently running on the road, even the best-performing gasoline engines, reach a maximum thermal efficiency of 40.6%, while other vehicles run with lower efficiency. Of course, it is impossible that only the latest models are on the road. Therefore, automobiles in operation all over the world are, on average, wasting more than 60% of the heat energy from combusted gasoline into the atmosphere.

This is not a leisurely debate about CO₂ as a greenhouse gas. If global warming is indeed a reality, then this fact raises suspicions that the main culprit is none other than the internal combustion engines powered by petroleum fuels. After all, when one liter (1000 cc) of gasoline is burned, automobiles discharge the heat equivalent of about 600 cc straight into the atmosphere while running.

Why has such wasteful practice been economically viable? Simply because crude oil was too cheap.

The technology of the internal combustion engine was established at the end of the 19th century and made human life dramatically richer. In the past, only kings, nobles, or the upper strata of society could own a carriage with a canopy. Yet the internal combustion engine gave even the working class access to automobiles with hundreds of times that power. The Model T Ford appeared in 1908. In the 1920s—the so-called Roaring Twenties—New York City witnessed a competition to construct skyscrapers hundreds of meters tall, monuments that could be called the pyramids of the 20th century. Around the same interwar period, airplanes—originally military high-tech—began to be converted into passenger planes. All this was made possible by the easy and cheap oil that could be consumed like water, fueling internal combustion engines. After all, before the Oil Shock of 1973, crude oil cost only 2–3 dollars per barrel.

In the 21st century, the era after Peak Oil, it has become clear that this was nothing more than a fleeting dream. What is now required of us is to clean up after the feast, for the sake of our children who will have no choice but to live in the world after Peak Oil, and then to quietly enter our coffins in peace.

As it stands, the highest priority task is dealing with nuclear waste—the legacy of nuclear power propped up by cheap oil.

※See,
原発、トイレのないマンション（ Nuclear power generation is a condominium without a toilet.）: 本に溺れたい

There are two reasons. First, it is impossible to handle the disposal of nuclear waste solely with the electricity generated by nuclear power plants themselves. High-level radioactive waste (in the form of vitrified glass) must be sealed inside specially manufactured stainless steel canisters, each with a diameter of 40 cm, a height of 130 cm, and a total weight of 500 kg. On top of that, transporting the stockpiled volume of nuclear waste already accumulated in Japan—equivalent to the length of the JR Yamanote Line—all the way to salt mines in Finland on the other side of the globe would be virtually impossible using only the electricity generated by nuclear power plants. Second, nuclear power plants (each unit) are built using resources and energy ultimately derived directly or indirectly from petroleum, but the electricity generated by one nuclear power plant is, in principle, insufficient to construct another plant of the same scale.

Humanity today faces the pressing question of responsibility toward its descendants.

※This article is an English translation of the following article.
自動車は、ガソリンのパワーの60％を大気中へ捨てている: 本に溺れたい