Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Volume I and II

320 ENERGY SOURCES—ALTERNATIVES

power plant. It was assumed that 0.95 lb of coal was burned at

the power plant for each mile of vehicle travel. In this case the

emissions would also include an SO 2 release of 16.25 g/mile

if the coal contained 2% sulfur and no control were provided.

This actual situation however will change when coal fired

centralized power plants are equipped with desulfurization

installations or when in the future the percentage of electricity

produced in nuclear power plants will be much higher.

Diesel engines used in trucks, buses, and trains are

accountable for a small fraction of transportation vehicle

emissions but have local objectionable effects such as smoke

and odor. Aircraft engines have similar effects but in the long

run may be able to effectively utilize alternate fuels such as

methane and hydrogen that will reduce emissions.

The expansion of mass transportation facilities to reduce

automobile usage, especially in urban areas, is an effective

way to utilize energy more efficiently in moving people from

place to place. A bus carrying 50 people and traveling at a

speed of 60 mph may consume about 0.003 gallons of fuel/

passenger mile, while an automobile carrying three people

will consume about 0.023 gallons of fuel/passenger mile

traveling at the same speed with a corresponding increase in

emissions and traffic congestion.

Disintegrated Methods

Analyzing alternative energy sources and alternative energy

economies the centralized social order ruling presently was

compared with disassociated way of life. For this alternative

social order disintegrated methods of energy supply were

suggested. These suggestions start from the point of view

that the effective (final) energies heat, mechanical work and

light can also be produced in small closed systems. As they

must not be available steadily, the temporal not-necessity of

these models get a favorable valuation in the ranking list.

Investment for connection, transmission and interconnection

become inapplicable as well as measures for environment.

Such considerations lead to self-operating island stations on

the basis of a suitable primary energy, for example, crude

oil or diesel fuel which through conversion may produce

mechanical work, heat, and light. Also biomass or bioener-

gies are part of such computer models. These disintegrated

methods are possibly suitable for peripheral agricultural

structures and may relieve the world energy supply unessen-

tially. In industrialized countries they cannot be applied.

The Problem of Transport

The demand on kinds of effective energies, especially in

industrial countries with cool climate are generally divided

as follows:

percentage of

total supply

possibilities of improvement

of efficiency of conversion

heat 60–69% 10–15%

mechanical

work 25–35% 3–4%

light 1–15% less than 1%

whereby chemical energy as effective energy, which is hard

to inquire statistically and without important share, shall be

neglected here.

In Germany the effective energies were supplied to 43.6%

to private households, 36.8% to the industry and 19.6% to

the field of transport and traffic (all figures valid for 1976).^59

If in the sector transport and traffic the above mentioned

19.6% (48.6 Mio tons SKE) would be again 100%, the fol-

lowing figures refer to

road 85.8%

railroad 5.1%

airlines 6.4%

inland navigation 2.7%

The main part of energy (and that mainly converted from crude

oil) flew into the road traffic—8% of the total primary energy

of the FRG. Railroad traffic, i.e., “Deutsche Bundesbahn”

and private railroad companies, consumed only 5.1% or 0.8%

of the total primary energy consumption. Though road traffic

consumed tenfold of primary energies, the output of transport

amounted only to 2.3-fold of the output of railroad (1976).

Hence it follows that:

1) Railroad is with regard to energy consumption

more economical than road.

2) The electrification of the railroad has reduced

within 10 years the primary energy consumption

to round about 50%.

3) Road traffic offers the greatest possibilities for

saving energy and for the substitution of crude oil

products by electricity.

TABLE 18

Emissions from alternate vehicular power plants

Emissions (g/mile)

HC CO NOx

California standard, 1971a 2.2 23 4

EPA standard for 1975b 0.41 3.4 3

EPA standard for 1976b 0.41 3.4 0.4

Gasoline I-C engine, no controls 11.6 64 5.6

Natural gas I-C enginea 1.5 6 1.5

Diesel enginec 3.5 5 4

Regenerative gas turbinec 0.32 3.5 1.9

Stirling enginec 0.1 1.0 2.6

Steam enginea 0.2 1.0 0.4

Electric battery vehicled 0.04 — 4.3

a Congressional Record H 903, February 17, 1970.

b Federal Register, July 2, 1971, pp. 12658.

c Personal communication, R. Tom Sawyner.

d Reference 58; emissions in this case are from a coal-fired central power plant

and also include about 16.25 g of SO 2 /mile and 2.1 g particulates/mile.

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