Re: An unusual sight

D.F. Manno wrote:
> And how much energy does it take to produce a gallon of gasoline, and is it more 
> or less than the energy you get out of it?

More accurately:  How much energy does it take to convert x amount of
petroleum into a gallon of gasoline, and how does that compare to the
difference in available energy in the petroleum vs the gasoline?

> 
> Doesn't the Second Law of Thermodynamics mean that you will always get less 
> energy from a fuel than it takes to produce it?

Make sure you are including the entire system in your model.  Are you
counting only the energy to convert petroleum to gasoline?  If you
are considering the total energy available in the gasoline end product,
don't forget to subtract the energy present in the raw products
(petroleum mostly) that went in at the front end.  And not all
the energy contained in the molecules is easily available to our
everyday processes.

(Consider the total amount of energy contained in a mass of
hydrogen, vs. the amount of that energy that is available to
us without extraordinary mechanisms, i.e. burning and not
fusion.)

The point of most "renewable resources" is not that they violate
any Law of Thermodynamics, but that most or all of the energy
they deliver comes from the sun, in the short-term (not millions
of years).

-- 
Don Wannit <edb2000 -at- spamcop.net>
A paid SpamCop user since 1999