Question

What if Congress decided that all cars and trucks must be powered by batteries? Would this change solve the air pollution problems caused by transportation?

Answer 1

Oh boy! In America, it will not make much of an impact, because the majority of electricity is made by burning coal or another fossil fuel. Politicians never learned how to draw a system boundary.

Answer 2

thanks :)

Answer 3

this "solution' would cause more pollution

Answer 4

Not necessarily. We need to analyze the efficiencies of an IC engines, electric motor, and power generation processes; and the combustion exhaust contents of burning the various types of fuels.

We'll see that power generation is about twice as efficient (first and second law efficiency) as ICE's and that power generation has the ability to cool exhaust gases slower which will allows some of the dissociated exhaust gases to re-associate, reducing the relative concentration of pollutants per kmole of fuel burned. Additionally, electric motors are about three times as efficient as ICE's.

Now, there are several other factors which skew these initial observations. First, we need to account for transmission losses of the electricity. Second, we need to consider the amount of pollution reduced by not having to transport gasoline and diesel fuel to market.
Considering these two factors, things are about even in terms of pollutants per kmole of fuel burned. This is strictly regarding air-pollutants.

If we look at other environmental impacts, like the heavy metals produced during the production of batteries, batteries are terrible for the environment. Additionally, there is no good way to dispose of worn out batteries, furthering the impact.

In conclusion, if we focus on air-pollution, which is what everyone seems to be concerned about these days, there is no substantial gain from battery powered cars. However, battery powered cars create pollution which impact other areas of the environment.