What is the main source of Energy for Transportation Systems?

Answer 1

today about dicious the petrol energy......petrol energy is the part of main source of energy for transportation systems.

Petroleum: The Transport Fuel Almost all transportation modes depend on a form of the internal combustion engine, with the two most salient technologies being the diesel engine and the gas turbine, since they are the lynchpin of globalization. While ship and truck engines are adaptations of the diesel engine, jet engines are an adaptation of the gas turbine. Transportation is almost completely reliant (95%) upon petroleum products with the exception of railways using electrical power. While the use of petroleum for other economic sectors, such as industrial and electricity generation, has remained relatively stable, the growth in oil demand is mainly attributed to the growth in transportation demand. What varies is the type and the quality of petroleum derived fuel being used. While maritime transportation relies on low quality bunker fuel, air transportation requires a specialized fuel with additives. It is worth having a closer look at the chemical combustion principle of hydrocarbons. For the majority of internal combustion engines, gasoline (C8H18; four strokes Otto-cycle engines) serves as fuel, but other sources like methane (CH4; gas turbines), diesel (mostly trucks), bunker fuel (for ships) and kerosene (turbofans of jet planes) are used. In a complete and perfect combustion of gasoline the following chemical reaction is achieved:

• (2) C8H18 + (25) O2 = (16) CO2 + (18) H2O + energy

Gasoline produces around 46,000 Btu per kilogram combusted, which requires from 16 to 24 kg of air. The energy released by combustion causes a rise in temperature of the products of combustion. Several factors and conditions influence the level of combustion in an internal combustion engine to provide momentum and keep efficient operating conditions. The temperature attained depends on the rate of release and dissipation of the energy and the quantity of combustion products. Air is the most available source of oxygen, but because air also contains vast quantities of nitrogen, nitrogen becomes the major constituent of the products of combustion. The rate of combustion may be increased by finely dividing the fuel to increase its surface area and hence its rate of reaction, and by mixing it with the air to provide the necessary amount of oxygen to the fuel. If all internal combustion engines worked according to the above equation, emissions and thus local environmental impacts of transportation would be negligible (except for carbon dioxide emissions). The problem is that combustion in internal combustion engines is imperfect and incomplete for two reasons