Over the weekend, I saw a passing reference on Twitter to the declining energy content of gasoline. Intuitively I know this to be correct for reasons I discuss below. But the poster linked to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that I hadn’t previously seen.
The EIA doesn’t directly tabulate the energy content of gasoline. But they do provide two pieces of data that let us calculate it ourselves from two relevant tables in the April 2019 Monthly Energy Review.
Table 3.5 provides Petroleum Products Supplied by Type in thousands of barrels per day, while Table 3.6 provides Heat Content of Petroleum Products Supplied by Type in trillion Btus per year.
From the annual numbers, doing the appropriate conversions (which includes accounting for leap years) provides the energy content of gasoline, in BTUs per gallon, since 1949. What we find is that the EIA reported a constant energy content of gasoline from 1949 to 1992 of 125,071 Btu/gallon. I have always typically used 125,000 Btu/gal as the standard value for gasoline.
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12 comments:
Interesting. And I always thought Octane was the energy content of gasoline. Shows what I don't know.
No I believe it is based on the BTU's of what gasoline provided in the form of energy... Just like how they use BTU's for electric cars... They calculate it out to give you MPH becasue that is all you people know or can seem to understand...
with summer belnd i am getting 37mpg
with winter i got 33mpg
i remember when they started alcohol in gas
my truck went from 17mpg to 14mpg
its easy to see how things have changed, at least for us older folks.
or if you pay attention to you mpg
The ethanol mandate is nothing but payback to the HUGE farm lobby that so generously "donates" to our congress. Everyone should have realized by now that their gas mileage went down with the mandate. Ethanol MIGHT reduce pollution by a little bit, but that is debatable. The increase in gallons burned due to loss of miles per gallon, totally offsets any decrease in pollution per gallon. It's all political. It's all about farmers getting more for their product. It has nothing to do with pollution control.
Also, it has to do with glucose aka ethanol being added to your gas... It burns faster, hence why you don't go as far... But it was a scheme PUSHED ON YOU CLOWNS WHO BELIEVE that you are helping the environment... in fact it only helps the pockets of the oil companies and anyone in between... They keep gas the same price, add this crap that hurts your engine, charge more for non-ethanol and you have to buy more of it becasue you burn it faster if you do get the kind with ethanol in it...
What I'd like to know is, why is our gas so expensive if the USA is now the biggest oil exporter in the world? We shouldn't be buying a drop from any Arabs and using our own oil instead of selling it. This should be investigated and explained, our gas should be no more than $1 a gallon!
10:53 if you think the US has expensive gas, talk to anyone from another country
It is damn weird that we are exporting oil yet buying it from the Muslims. Seems as smart as a Dairy Farmer going to the store to buy a gallon of Milk.
ethanol sure aint helpin!
BTU's = Miles per Hour ?
Wrong calculations bird brain
Less miles per gallon, more fuel used, equals more pollution. End of conversation !!
I don't care what other countries are paying. I live the the U.S.A., the current number 1 exporter of petroleum
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