When I was a kid, I loved cars, especially race cars. To me, Formula One racing was the ultimate, because they raced on real roads (sometimes,) and didn’t just go in circles. I also enjoyed going to drag races, and was impressed by the sheer power of the funny cars and rails. They are still impressive, but I lost my fascination with automobiles. Burning up gasoline is no longer cool, and there are much better ways to produce power than the reciprocating internal combustion engine.
During my service in the Air Force, I was exposed to engines which are far more powerful than reciprocating engines. They are called turbines, which is short for gas turbine engines. Their power to weight ratio far exceeds even the most souped-up drag racing engines, primarily because they are so much more efficient. Instead of burning the fuel for a brief instant, and then shoving the unburnt fuel and the waste products out the tailpipe, which is what a reciprocating engine does, a turbine burns the fuel continuously, which makes it far more efficient.
The best reciprocating engine in terms of efficiency is a diesel, which can approach 46 or 47 percent efficiency. A modern turbine averages about 97 percent efficiency. A reciprocating engine has a huge number of moving parts, from the pistons, which travel up and down, up and down, to the valves, which open and close, open and close. A turbine has one main moving part, which spins. This means that maintenance is simpler, and required less often. It also means that energy is not wasted by parts having to stop and begin moving in the opposite direction all the time.
An example of the increase in efficiency is the difference in weight between a diesel powered, 20,000 watt generator set, and a turbine powered, 20,000 watt generator set. The diesel powered genset weighs about 1,200 pounds, and the turbine powered genset weighs about 550 pounds. They both will burn a variety of fuels, but diesel is the preferred fuel. Basically all new aircraft are powered by turbines, even the ones with propellers.
What I want to see is a diesel fueled, turbine-electric vehicle. Because diesel fuel contains more energy per unit than gasoline, and is easier to refine, it should be the fuel of choice in the future. We are already building gasoline-electric hybrid cars, and a diesel turbine-electric would be far more efficient, in my opinion. The gasoline engine has dominated for so long because of the torque that it can produce, not because of any other characteristitc that I know of. By using electric motors, the high revolutions per minute of the turbine can be harnassed effectively, making possible even higher amounts of torque than the gasoline engine can produce.
