Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Dave
But theres no point in talking about diesels. Tier II/ULSD/ CA ban have pretty much killed diesel cars in the US.
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But if you're looking for best fuel economy, you need to scrap both diesel and gas IC engines eventually, and go to a Stirling-engined PHEV system. The electric system provides primary drive, and the starting torque & immediate startup that Stirlings don't have, while the Stirling engine turns fuel into power in the most thermodynamically-efficient way possible for a heat engine.
Though of course the ultimate would be a fuel cell that runs on biofuel of some sort. I seem to remember an alcohol-fueled one, and don't offhand see why it shouldn't be possible to run one on sugar.
And in fact it seems to be possible:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...lly-sweet.html