Thread: Are We Beyond Petroleum Yet?

I am wondering...if we can replace petrol engine by electric engine.....how will we replace jet engine with ..electric engine???? For that we need to carry a mini power station with the plane..

I suppose it may be possible to produce electric powered plane engines. What about nuclear powered planes?

The big problem is of course energy storage. Petroleum stores something like a 100 times more energy per unit mass than our best lithium batteries.

A nuclear powered aircraft would probably be quite possible if someone wanted to invest the money and could work through the sometimes irrational fear of anything associated with nukes.

Originally Posted by Lynx_Fox

A nuclear powered aircraft would probably be quite possible if someone wanted to invest the money and could work through the sometimes irrational fear of anything associated with nukes.

I don't think so. It would be too heavy and dangerous.

Nuclear powered can come in a few different forms--not all of them are heavy.

Nuclear reactors, which are large and heavy but there's several micro-nukes in development which getting down the size of the largest jet engines.

Then there are the nuclear power that use isotope decay to generate electricity (variously called atomic batteries)-there is no fission. These have been in use for decades by NASA, can be very small and are much more energy dense than standard batteries--most likely with plenty enough to power an aircraft.

Safety is another issue.