SYSTEMS ENGINEERING AND COAL BURNING CARS

Systems engineering draws together different disciplines within the engineering field and is concerned with organizing and integrating a project, taking into consideration virtually everything that makes it function as planned throughout its life cycle, including attention to risk reduction, impacts on the surrounding territory, logistics, performance, etc. To illustrate: a manufacturer of, say a ready-to-operate rocket (or a car) delivers his finished product at the loading dock, The buyer of the rocket (user) must then deal with transportation to the launch area, payload integration, design and maintenance of a launch platform, provision and loading of rocket propellants, flight control software, range safety and a host of other operations to make the rocket lift off and deliver a payload to a promised location. That would be the user’s system. Lots of independent functions that have to be organized and integrated in the most efficient way possible.  But this operator may be servicing an even larger system, like the International Space Station, a product too of system engineering.  In recent years, largely due to the growing complexity of products, systems engineering has also been widely applied in the design of products, like a rocket, a car. or an e-book. It focuses on the nature of customer needs and desires, as well as functional aspects early in the process. It establishes a management plan for achieving the objective of a finished product.  It proceeds with modelling and actual design followed by prototype construction, development and proofing tests, production, quality control, packaging and delivery. 

We’re going to hear a lot more about systems engineering. The applied discipline is only seventy years old. We’re not yet at the point where world governments have the insight to recognize the  global significance of systems engineering to keep Earth livable long into the future.....in one word: sustainable. Sustainability is the capacity to endure. Essential elements are long term maintenance of responsibility, with environmental and social dimensions,  stewardship and the responsible management of resources. The tendency seems always to capitalize on opportunities the easy way, disregarding the consequences.

In the case above where the product is a car, there was little awareness in the industry and in political circles trumpeting the wonders of the electric car, that a little more systems engineering would have been beneficial. When the power for operating a car originates in a power plant hundreds of miles away, the electric car in fact turns out to be quite different from the energy saving wonder that automotive producers would have one believe. Converts to electric cars believe they are doing a good thing. They have a car that goes and they are making their contribution to the environment. Advertising tells them that they are right on both counts, but only the first is true.

Plug-in hybrid and all-electric cars that have been developed and marketed might have been banned had they been subjected to end-to-end analysis of energy consumption. Such an evaluation would have demonstrated that they do not improve the energy picture, and in fact are detrimental, as well as unhelpful for environmental improvement. Electric cars, unless their batteries are recharged by renewable energy sources......photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric and biofuels..... are little more than coal burners. They are less efficient than the worst of gasoline powered cars.

System engineering could have delayed construction of nuclear power plants until safe storage of nuclear waste was concurrently provided; there would not be mountains of tires and automobile junkyards scattered around the country; disposable dry cells would be outlawed, as there is no trustworthy system for disposal of their toxic contents, and providing power in this manner is a colossal waste of resources. (How much more elegant... a generator on an exercise bike where you can recharge all your household batteries).

About three-quarters of the electrical energy in the United States comes from coal fired and nuclear plants (50% coal and 20% nuclear). Both operate at around 30% thermal efficiency although a few newer high-tech coal burning plants are demonstrating higher efficiencies. Transmission losses from the generator through the grid and terminating at the car’s battery approximate 10%. An electric car is at best 85% efficient. At a little over 20% overall energy efficiency, the electric car hardly compares with gasoline powered cars, which are closer to 30% efficient. Of course, a thorough analysis would show that there are regional variations. Some parts of the nation depend solely on coal generated power. Some are a mix of power generated from several sources that can show better thermal efficiency. Power transmission losses are however unaffected.

Were fifty million plug-in’s and hybrids to hit the roads, there would be a huge upswing in both coal and natural gas consumption.  Renewable sources would rise too, but would likely remain at 30% of the total power generated. It’s hard to compete economically with coal. Total energy consumption would far higher than if automobiles were to continue to operate on gasoline.

An electric car design that would reduce total energy consumption would consist of a drive motor on each wheel, a moderate complement of batteries, and an internal combustion engine that operates at constant speed at its point of highest efficiency and functions only to charge the batteries. Such an engine could be much more efficient than conventional gasoline burning engines, for which a 40% operating efficiency is still an elusive target. It thus would result in overall reduction in energy consumption. Such cars could boast a thousand miles between tankings. For that matter, there are European automotive Diesel engines that already fit the requirement. These engines could evolve easily into burners of various types of biofuels.  

Yesterday a mature juniper tree, its roots humping up my sidewalk, was removed from my front yard. As I watched the workman’s truck depart for the city dump, loaded with greenery, I imagined thousands of such trucks arriving at city dumps every day across the nation. Potential biofuel, destined to become buried or chopped into garden mulch. Is it that much of a stretch to imagine driving your electric motor powered car to a station at the entrance to the city dump and tanking up with biofuel?

Systems engineering can keep the planet livable, for all species. There is no other option. Should a time arrive when it is necessary to pray for miracles, it will be too late.