Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the efficiency of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier fuel into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, which in turn may vary per application, and this spectrum of variance is often illustrated as a continuous energy profile. Non-transportation applications, such as industry, benefit from increased fuel efficiency, especially fossil fuel power plants or industries dealing with combustion, such as ammonia production during the Haber process.
In the context of transport, fuel economy is the energy efficiency of a particular vehicle, and is given as a ratio of distance travelled per unit of fuel consumed. Fuel economy is expressed in miles per gallon (mpg) (prevalent in the USA and UK, using their respective definitions of a gallon) or kilometres per litre (km/L) (prevalent in the Netherlands, Denmark and in several Latin American or Asian countries such as India, Japan, South Korea). The reciprocal ratio, "fuel consumption", is usually expressed in liters per 100 kilometers (L/100 km) (common in Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Australia) or litres per mil (Norway/Sweden).
Variations on a vehicle's fuel efficiency include weight-specific efficiency for freight, and passenger-specific efficiency (vehicle efficiency / number of passengers).
Read more about Fuel Efficiency: Vehicle Design, Fleet Efficiency, Energy Efficiency Terminology, Energy Content of Fuel, Fuel Efficiency of Vehicles, Fuel Efficiency in Microgravity, Driving Technique
Famous quotes containing the words fuel and/or efficiency:
“The particular source of frustration of women observing their own self-study and measuring their worth as women by the distance they kept from men necessitated that a distance be kept, and so what vindicated them also poured fuel on the furnace of their rage. One delight presumed another dissatisfaction, but their hatefulness confessed to their own lack of power to please. They hated men because they needed husbands, and they loathed the men they chased away for going.”
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“I’ll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.”
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