Coal in Your Stocking? Fuel Up the Cadillac!

[DainBramaged]

(interesting article)

ELECTRIC-CAR doubters often say that a vehicle like the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, intended to drive most of its miles on batteries charged from the power grid, is effectively powered by coal. While that is a vast oversimplification, it contains a germ of truth: half of the electricity generated in the United States comes from coal-fired power plants.

That is not to say the Volt and a slew of coming plug-in hybrids proposed by General Motors and other automakers will be belching smoke like 19th-century locomotives. Plug-in hybrids charged from the electricity grid may be partly dependent on coal-power sources, but there is no doubt that these battery-powered cars can be cleaner alternatives to a gasoline-burning fleet in urban centers.

Still, the idea of a car actually fueled by coal is not so far-fetched. Three decades ago, G.M. developed a prototype powertrain that consumed coal directly. Installed under the hood of a 1978 Cadillac Eldorado, the engine was truly a coal-burner — using the coal in solid form, not converted to a gas or a liquid — though the fuel was in the form of a finely ground powder, not chunks the size of golf balls.

As an engineering exercise, the project made sense, coming in the aftermath of alarming spikes in global petroleum prices that — this may sound familiar — inspired programs to reduce the nation’s reliance on Middle East oil.

It was based on sound principles: the United States has greater demonstrated coal reserves than any other country, nearly 500 billion tons according to the Energy Department, about half of which is considered recoverable. Coal beats other fossil fuels by being the least expensive energy source when measured in B.T.U.’s, its heat energy output, per dollar. Since there was concern in the 1970s that the world was quickly running out of oil, coal-powered cars seemed like a good idea.

The car G.M. engineers used as a development mule was an Eldorado from the last year of production before the model was drastically downsized for the ’79 model year. Its huge V-8 piston engine was replaced by a gas turbine engine, fed from a small coal bin under the hood.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/automobiles/04COAL.html