GorillaOffTopic, Everything But Gorilla Trades

Have you ever wondered how much of the energy the gasoline you put in your tank really uses? Well, if the Gorilla told you, you probably wouldn’t believe it! Of the gasoline you put in your car’s tank, only a mere 25% of the energy is actually used to power your car…the rest is expelled out of your exhaust pipe! Yuck! (Global warming anyone?)  What a waste of precious energy and money. But wait- don’t think for a minute you and the Gorilla are the only ones who are bothered by this fact. Many people over the years have tried to create ways to harness that additional energy to make your gas go a lot further, but no one has found a practical way to do it- until now.   Researchers at the Ohio State University and Caltech in California have found a way to harness and recycle some of the extra energy using a thermoelectric material that is nearly twice as effective as current materials. ”The material does all the work. It produces electrical power just like conventional heat engines — steam engines, gas or diesel engines — that are coupled to electrical generators, but it uses electrons as the working fluids instead of water or gases, and makes electricity directly,” Joseph Heremans, who led the project, said in a statement.  Jeff Snyder of Caltech worked on the project and says that the device can increase the vehicle’s fuel efficiency by 10%. Snyder says the idea of thermoelectrics has been around for a long time, but it didn’t make sense when oil was only $20 per barrel. ”Now that energy costs have gone up by a factor of five, these alternative ideas that have been around for awhile are a lot more viable,” Snyder said in a telephone interview. He believes it would be possible to make the systems available in the next 10 years. Hmmm…10 years?  

Call the Gorilla crazy, but 10 years just seems a little too late, considering the ballgame could quite possibly be a bit more “green” by then! After all, aren’t automakers currently focusing on the non-use of gasoline and more energy efficient cars in the next 10 years? A good idea, yes- but it’s just too bad the good idea didn’t have better timing! It would be great to have that technology available right now when we are currently experiencing an energy crisis, with gasoline costing more than $4 per gallon! But yes, a great idea indeed, and who knows, maybe in ten years gasoline may still be the number one source of energy for automobiles. (But let’s hope not!)