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A comment on California to open five natural gas plants to avoid blackouts. Parent comment

Re:California to open five natural gas plants to avoid black... by JshWright on Thursday September 02, 2021 @10:06AM (#28392166)
ICE efficiency can absolutely be improved. The question is if it's worth it. EVs are already better, even assuming zero renewables on the grid (which obviously isn't the case), and get better each year as more renewables come online at an ever increasing pace.

We can either continue on the current path (which is certainly the path of least resistance), or we can pivot and make a massive investment in building out a CNG distribution system (not to mention all the R&D and production cost that would go into swapping out any significant percentage of the current vehicles on the road).

We need to convert the grid away from fossil fuels anyway. If we're doing that already, why take on the extra work of building out a consumer-facing CNG infrastructure?

I think CNG (and, for that matter, hydrogen) makes a ton of sense in certain circumstances. Mass transit fleets, truck depots, etc

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Re:California to open five natural gas plants to avoid black... by sasfasaf on Thursday September 02, 2021 @05:10PM (#28397395)
Ok, but I want numbers. How good can ICEs get?

Mercedes claims their 1.5L F1 engine - designed for power, not efficiency - is over 50% thermally efficient. An EV can't match that. Not with the gas cycle efficiency and all the line power losses.

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Re:California to open five natural gas plants to avoid black... by JshWright on Friday September 03, 2021 @09:20AM (#28403811)
The practical limit for an ICE engine in a road car (in a hybrid configuration) is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% (small sizes make efficiency harder). A theoretical ideal ICE hybrid would almost certainly beat a current day EV on the current day grid. But that's not a fair comparison, and we have to modernize the grid anyway.

F1 PUs are absolutely designed with efficiency in mind. The FIA limits both the maximum fuel used in a race, as well as the instantaneous fuel flow rate. When fuel flow rates are capped, getting more power is the same thing as getting more efficiency.

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