School of Engineering

Sustainability Seminar
Dr. Jorge Francisco Estela

Workshop 2021-1
Energy Conversion

1. The electrical rating of a house is 4 kW, but the monthly electricity consumption is 300
kWh. What is the percentage of time that the house consumes electricity at full load?
R: 10.4 per cent.

2. Calculate the cost per unit energy of gasoline at $8600/gallon and electricity at $650/kWh.
The density of gasoline is 750 kg/m3 and 1 gallon = 3.785 litres, and the heating value of
gasoline is 44500 kJ/kg. What conclusions would you draw from these results?
R: Gasoline: $0.068/kJ. Electricity: $0.181/kJ.

3. The emission factor is the mass of carbon dioxide released per unit energy produced by the
combustion of a fuel, and the common unit is kg CO2/GJ. From the stoichiometric relations
of combustion and the heating values, estimate the theoretical emission factors of
petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Assume that the average molecular formula C 7H17
represents petroleum, that methane (CH4) represents natural gas, and that anthracite
represents coal with a composition by weight of 70 percent elemental carbon. The heating
values are 44500 kJ/kg for petroleum, 54000 kJ/kg for natural gas, and 27000 kJ/kg for coal.
R: Petroleum: 68.53. Natural gas: 50.93. coal: 95.06.

4. Compare the cost of two methods of driving a pump to take water from underground
wells: human labour or a gasoline engine. The pump has to raise a mass of 10000 kg of
water from a depth of 100 m. To do this labour, assume that a person eats only beef of
nutritional energy 10500 kJ/kg at a cost of $32500/kg. On the other hand, take from
Problem 2 the cost per unit energy of gasoline. Assume that the thermal efficiency of both
the human metabolism and the gasoline engine is 25 per cent. What conclusions do you
draw from this exercise?
R: Human labour: $121000. Gasoline engine: $3058.

5. Consider a 1500-kg car travelling at 100 km/h on a horizontal road. The force needed to
overcome the resistance with the road surface is one-hundredth of the car’s weight and
the force needed to overcome the aerodynamic drag is FD  12 v 2 C D A , in which the
density of air is , v is the speed, CD is the drag coefficient, and A is the frontal area of the
car. Consider that  = 1.18 kg/m3, CD = 0.28, A = 2.6 m2, and that the thermal efficiency of
the engine is 25 percent. Take the properties of gasoline from Problem 2 and the emission
factor is 68.53 kg CO2/GJ. Calculate the power delivered by the engine, the fuel economy
(km/gallon) and the emissions of the car (g CO2/km).
R: 53 kW; 66 km/gal; 131 g CO2/km.
School of Engineering

Calle 18 No. 118-250 Av. Cañasgordas • A.A. No. 26239 • PBX 321 8200 • www.javerianacali.edu.co
 School of Engineering
Sustainability Seminar
Dr. Jorge Francisco Estela

6. Consider that the fuel consumption of a car is 6 L/100 km while travelling at 100 km/h on a
horizontal road. Take the density of air, drag coefficient, thermal efficiency, and emission
factor of gasoline from Problem 5 and the heating value of gasoline from Problem 2.
Calculate the rate of carbon dioxide emissions (g CO2/s), frontal area, and fuel economy of
the car (km/gallon), and the power delivered by the engine.
R: 3.8 g CO2/s, 2.7 m2, 63.1 km/gallon, 55 KW.

7. Imagine that you want to have in Cali an electric car to replace your gasoline car. The
annual use of the gasoline car is 18000 km, its fuel economy is 40 km/gallon, and the
thermal efficiency of the gasoline engine is 25 percent. Take the data of gasoline from
Problem 2. On the other hand, the grid-to-wheels efficiency of the electric car is 90
percent. You will have two options to charge the batteries of the electric car: to take
electricity from the grid or to install a photovoltaic system. Take from Problem 2 the cost
per unit energy of electricity. Regarding the photovoltaic system, consider that the daily
average insolation in Cali is 4.1 kWh/m2, that the conversion efficiency is 20 per cent, and
that the annual capacity factor is 30 per cent. Compare the annual costs of driving the two
cars, the land area needed to install the photovoltaic system, and the saving in carbon
dioxide emissions of the photovoltaic option.
R: Gasoline car: $4.387.000; electric car: $2.654.44; 50.0 m2; 3890 kg CO2.

8. Calculate the annual savings in CO2 emissions (Mton/year) if a 1000-MW conventional coal
power station (thermal efficiency of 33 percent) is replaced with a Combined Cycle Gas
Turbine system (50 percent thermal efficiency) operated with natural gas. The emission
factors (kg CO2/GJ) of natural gas and bituminous coal are 50.3 and 88.1, respectively.
R: 5.2 Mton/year.

9. The annual energy consumption of the transport sector is 2750 Mtoe and road vehicles
account for three quarters of that. Assume that those vehicles operate with gasoline, with
emission factor taken from Problem 5, and that their thermal efficiency is 25 percent. A
strategy to mitigate global carbon dioxide emissions is to replace liquid-fuel vehicles with
battery electric vehicles with grid-to-wheels efficiency of 90 percent. Consider two options
to provide energy for those electric vehicles: conventional coal power stations of 33
percent thermal efficiency or photovoltaic power plants of 20 percent conversion efficiency
located in desert areas of daily average insolation of 300 W/m2 and capacity factor of 80
percent. Consider, also, that the annual rate of global carbon dioxide emissions is 32300
Mton CO2. Take the emission factor of coal from Problem 8. Calculate the percentage
change in the global emissions rate of the two options and the land area required for the
photovoltaic systems assuming a 4:1 ratio between the land area required and the area of
the solar panels themselves.
R: 1.5 percent; -18.3 percent; 63400 km2
School of Engineering

Calle 18 No. 118-250 Av. Cañasgordas • A.A. No. 26239 • PBX 321 8200 • www.javerianacali.edu.co
 School of Engineering
Sustainability Seminar
Dr. Jorge Francisco Estela

10. Consider a solar tower power plant in a location where the daily average insolation is 7.5
kWh/m2. The power cycle operates between a high temperature of 700°C and a sink
temperature of 100°C. Assume that the heliostats convert solar energy into thermal energy
with 50 percent efficiency, that the power cycle operates with efficiency 75 percent of the
theoretical maximum, that the capacity factor is 80 percent, and that the heliostats cover
one-fifth of the land area. Calculate the land area needed for a power output of 1000 MW
and the overall efficiency of the plant.
R: 87.5 km2; 23 percent.

School of Engineering

Calle 18 No. 118-250 Av. Cañasgordas • A.A. No. 26239 • PBX 321 8200 • www.javerianacali.edu.co