EPOnline – Jan 12, 2012
No less than one third of a car’s fuel consumption is spent in overcoming friction. This friction loss has a direct impact on both fuel consumption and emissions. However, new technology can reduce friction by anything from 10 percent to 80 percent in various components of a car, according to a joint study by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in the United States. Based on the study results, it should be possible to reduce car’s fuel consumption and emissions by 18 percent within the next five to 10 years and up to 61 percent within 15 to 25 years.
There are 612 million cars in the world today. The average car clocks up about 13,000 km per year, and burns 340 litres of fuel just to overcome friction, costing the driver EUR 510 per year.
Of the energy output of fuel in a car engine, 33 percent is spent in exhaust, 29 percent in cooling and 38 percent in mechanical energy, of which friction losses account for 33 percent and air resistance for 5 percent. By comparison, an electric car has only half the friction loss of that of a car with a conventional internal combustion engine.
Annual friction loss in an average car worldwide amounts to 11,860 MJ: of this, 35 percent is spent in overcoming rolling resistance in the wheels, 35 percent in the engine itself, 15 percent in the gearbox and 15 percent in braking. With current technology, only 21.5 percent of the energy output of the fuel is used to actually move the car; the rest is wasted.
Read the complete article at Environmental Protection Online
