The Electricity in Gasoline

[ClarksonCote]

http://plugsandcars.blogspot.com/201...-gasoline.html

I thought this highlighted a pretty interesting statistic: US Refineries in 2007 used 49,000,000,000 kWh of electricity. Assuming 36 kWh per 100 miles (Volt EPA label), that is enough electricity to drive 11 MILLION Chevrolet Volt's 12,000 miles per year!

[Raymondjram]

That fact would be useful if someone could calculate how much electrical power is needed to refine one gallon of gasoline. Then throw that fact at the ICE supporters, and tell them that power may come from other sources, such as coal. So coal is needed to refine gasoline.

EVs eliminate the middle conversion (gasoline to mechanical power) and just need coal to electricity , then convert electricity to mechanical power. This saves on the import of petroleum and waste less energy. By the time Mr. Fusion arrives on the market, we can convert coal (and any type of fuel) locally to electricity, and so on..

Raymond

[Nick D]

According to this link

http://gatewayev.org/how-much-electr...on-of-gasoline

About 4 - 7.5 kWh per gallon of Gas.

2.77 miles per kWh for an EV (based on 36kWh per 100mi) Refining a single gallon of gas could move an EV 11 miles (assuming 4 kWh and 19 miles assuming 7kWh). This does not take into account how much energy was used to:
-Search for the Oil
-Drill for the Oil
-Transport the Oil
-Transport the Gasoline
-The engergy contained in the fuel itself.

That adds a whole other aspect to the arguement of coal power vs. gasoline...

[JeffNY]

The above figures also don't take into account the hundreds of billions of dollars it costs the taxpayer to secure access to oil supplies around the world...

[EricLG]

EPA says refining and distribution costs of oil -> petrol consumes 17% of the original energy.
I've misplaced the link, but the number can be found by googling how CAFE is calculated.

Addendum: Here it is, courtesy of SAE.

[misslexi]

I wonder how much electricity is in electricity?

[JeffNY]

>>I wonder how much electricity is in electricity? <<

I think I read somewhere it's about 1000 watts per 1 kilo watt. Does that sound about right?

[honoreitiscom]

...and how much gasoline there is in electricity. Diesel to power the train that moves the coal to the power plant, etc...