Alternative fuels have various energy densities and are measured in a variety of units, making comparisons difficult. The gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) measure allows drivers to compare a particular amount of energy from alternative fuels on an apples-to-apples basis and determine which fuel best meets their needs. Understanding the energy composition of fuels can help with fuel price and driving range comparisons.
What is a GGE? How about a DGE?
A standardized unit for comparing the energy content of all fuels is the GGE. The amount of alternative fuel that has the same energy content as one gallon of conventional gasoline is measured in this unit. Diesel gallon equivalent (DGE) is commonly utilized in medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fuel applications.
How are GGE and DGE values determined?
The energy content of a fuel is measured in British thermal units (Btus) per gallon and is sometimes referred to as the fuel’s lower heating value. The energy content of one gallon of gasoline or diesel is divided by the energy content of the comparison fuel to calculate GGE and DGE. Conventional gasoline, for example, has a Btus level of 116,090 per gallon, while propane has a Btus content of 84,250 per gallon. As a result, 1.38 gallons of propane equals one gallon of conventional gasoline in terms of energy.
The energy content, GGE, and DGE values of conventional and alternative fuels are shown in the table below.
* Heating value is lower. Transportation Energy Data Book, Edition 35, is the source for CNG and hydrogen (Btu/ft3). Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) Fuel Properties is the source for the remaining values.
** E85 sold in the United States currently has roughly 70% ethanol on average. As a result, the energy content of E85 was determined as+
*** When calculating and comparing miles per GGE, keep in mind that electric vehicles are more efficient (on a Btu basis) than combustion engines (see below).
The figures in the table above can be used to normalize fuel levels so that comparisons can be made. If you have 10,000 ft3 of CNG, divide by 125.77 ft3 to get 79.5 GGE. Similarly, divide 139.21 ft3 by 71.83 DGE to find the number of DGEs.
How are GGE and DGE used to compare fuel prices?
To ensure consistency in pricing, fuel prices might be expressed in dollars per GGE or DGE. As a result, the Clean Cities Alternative Fuel Price Report displays prices in terms of energy equivalent (Table 3 in recent reports). If you don’t have access to pricing per GGE or DGE, you can calculate it yourself. For example, if one gallon of E85 costs $2.04, you’d multiply that by 1.32 (see table above) to get $2.69 per GGE after accounting for energy content.
What are the factors that impact how far I can drive between fill ups?
One aspect that influences driving range is the energy content of fuels. When you fill up with a less energy-dense fuel, you won’t be able to travel as far. Tank capacity and vehicle economy, on the other hand, are important considerations.
Some alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) have tank sizes that are comparable to conventional vehicles, while others have larger fuel tanks to compensate for the energy content differential. Vehicles that run on propane and biodiesel, for example, have fuel tanks that are similar in size to those that run on conventional fuel. Both of these fuels have lower energy densities than their traditional fuel counterparts, as seen in the table above, which can result in lower fuel economy and shorter range per tank. In the case of propane, there are bi-fuel vehicles that can run on both conventional and propane fuel for a longer driving range. In addition, propane and biodiesel have a slew of other advantages that can help to make up for the difference.
CNG and hydrogen vehicles, on the other hand, frequently have larger tanks to compensate for their lower energy densities. When acquiring a CNG vehicle, fleets and drivers may have the option of adding an additional CNG storage tank to the vehicle. Bi-fuel CNG vehicles, on the other hand, are available to enhance the range. In terms of hydrogen, these vehicles often have larger fuel tanks.
The size of the tank isn’t the only aspect that influences range; vehicle efficiency also matters. All-electric cars (EVs), for example, are far more efficient than traditional fuel automobiles. According to FuelEconomy.gov, electric vehicles use between 59 and 62 percent of the electricity generated by the grid to power the vehicle, but traditional gasoline vehicles can only convert 17 to 21 percent of the energy produced by gasoline to power the vehicle. This is one of the reasons why electric vehicles outperform conventional vehicles in terms of fuel efficiency, even when comparing fuels on an energy-equivalent basis.
How many BTUs does a gallon of #2 fuel oil contain?
British Thermal Units, or BTUs for short, are used by scientists to measure heat value. The amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit is measured in BTUs. It’s the same temperature as a birthday candle flame.
- Each cubic foot of natural gas contains 1,030 BTUs. One gallon of oil has a heat content of 135 cubic feet.
- Each gallon of kerosene contains 131,890 BTUs. One gallon of oil has a heat content of 1.05 gallons.
- Propane has a BTU content of 91,500 per gallon. One gallon of oil produces 1.52 gallons of heat.
- A kilowatt hour of electricity contains 3,413 BTUs (kwh). One gallon of oil has a heat content of 40.6kwh.
- Anthracite coal has a BTU content of 12,000 per pound. One gallon of oil has a heat content of about 12 pounds.
Remember to include any taxes, meter or service charges that the gas or electric companies apply to the bill when comparing unit costs for the various fuels.
Knowing the Cost to Convert from Oil to Gas
Consider the expense of switching from oil to gas before making your selection! There are a number of factors that influence the cost of a conversion, including:
Additionally, here are some things we want our customers to know before making the move from oil to gas:
- According to the US Department of Energy, the US has only 4% of the world’s natural gas reserves, with the remaining 73% concentrated in Russia, Eurasia, and the Middle East.
- According to the international group Methane to Markets, natural gas system losses account for 18 percent of total global methane emissions.
- Fuel conversion, according to the Consumer Energy Council of America, is a “expensive gamble,” and instead of switching fuels, households should modify their oil equipment to accomplish conservation. Conversion is more expensive than updating, and the chances of significant savings are slim.
- Natural gas is highly flammable, and leaks can be quite dangerous. Natural gas heating systems are also the major source of carbon monoxide deaths that are not caused by fire.
- In most cases, neither preventive maintenance nor emergency service are provided by gas utilities. As a result, gas users may be squandering fuel by using improperly tuned equipment, and they may be without aid in the event of a power outage.
What is the energy content of a gallon of gasoline?
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, was interviewed by Business Insider today, and he made an interesting claim: “If you stop refining gasoline, you’ll have enough electricity to power all the automobiles in the country,” he claims. “When you refine gasoline, it takes an average of 5 kilowatt hours; a car like the Model S can run 20 miles on 5 kilowatt hours.”
It’s a remark I’ve seen a lot in recent weeks, usually packaged as a claim that electric cars use less electricity than regular cars. The only problem is that it isn’t true.
The claim’s math is straightforward. The energy content of a gallon of gasoline is around 132,000 Btu, and refinery efficiency is around 90%. When you add it all up, you get around 13,000 Btu of energy cost every gallon of gasoline generated, which is about 4 kilowatt hours in energy terms. (The claim of 6 kilowatt hours is based on old efficiency estimates.)
However, there are two major flaws with this. The first is that refineries do not utilize much power; just approximately 15% of their energy comes from it. This reduces the amount of electricity used to around 0.6 kilowatt hours. The second issue is that fuel to power conversion is inefficient. A process loss of 0.6 kilowatt hours translates to a real-world electricity loss of roughly 0.2 kilowatt hours.
This is supported by refinery data. Refineries consumed 47 TWh of power in 2001 to make refined goods from 5.3 billion barrels of oil, according to the Department of Energy. Based on the assumption that each barrel of oil yields 42 gallons of refined products, each gallon of gasoline produced consumes around 0.2 kilowatt hours of energy.
Is it propane or oil that has more BTUs?
One of the most important considerations I had to make when building our new home was what sort of heating fuel to utilize. Should we rely on the traditional oil heat that over 90% of New Englanders rely on? Should we use propane instead? (natural gas is not available here in this part of NH).
Pros and Cons
When you sit down and think about it, the answer to that question is somewhat hard. For us, I knew we’d have propane in the house, both for cooking and for our direct vent fireplace. One of my major concerns about oil was having an oil tank in my basement that might spill at any time.
Another important factor to consider was venting the two types of fuel. A direct vent out the side of the house (which is unsightly, stains the house, and gets rather hot) or a regular chimney would be required for an oil-fired boiler. Modern gas boilers allow you to vent the furnace up through the roof or wall using normal PVC piping. I chose the gas heater to shorten a long narrative. The lack of an oil tank, the roof venting, and the opportunity to have a high efficiency boiler were the main factors in my decision.
A cost analysis of the two fuels was something I didn’t look into very much. So, after last winter’s quite hefty fuel expenditures, I did some study on fuel cost comparisons. It’s not as simple as comparing the cost of the two fuels per gallon. A gallon of fuel oil costs $2.69 where I reside right now (2007), whereas a gallon of propane costs $1.93. On the surface, gas appears to be a fantastic deal for the average person. The actual issue, though, is how much energy each fuel can create in a gallon. Fuel oil produces around 130,000 BTUs, while propane produces around 95,000 BTUs. Most oil boilers, on the other hand, have an efficiency of around 85% at most, but gas boilers have an efficiency of up to 95%.
Using this information, I calculated the cost per BTU for both types of fuel using the assumptions listed above.
As a result, propane is slightly more cost-effective in this case. Let me start with a large disclaimer. If you ask a group of heating experts, they’ll tell you that oil is usually a better deal. It is dependent on a number of factors, including the equipment used. What that tells me is that the two fuels are very close in terms of cost per BTU.
For me, the fact that I’m burning a cleaner fuel, my boiler requires almost no maintenance, I don’t have an oil tank to leak, I only have water vapor and carbon monoxide exiting my vent, and I required propane to cook with and heat my home still seems like the right decision for us. I recommend that you consider these points the next time you shop for a new heating system for your home.
Another advantage of propane over oil that is frequently neglected is tank size. Propane users typically have a larger tank than oil users. Most propane tanks are 500 to 1,000 gallons, while most conventional oil tanks are 275 to 400 gallons. This may not appear to make a difference at first glance, yet it can have a significant impact.
In the summer, when fuel prices are typically lower than in the winter, I choose to fill up my propane tank. I can buy more propane at a lesser price with the larger tank than I could with the smaller oil tank throughout the summer. If you have a 1,000 gallon propane tank, this can add up over the course of the year.
Would you want a spreadsheet with a propane vs. oil calculator? If that’s the case, check out our Fuel Calculator for Oil vs Propane.
Propane or natural gas has more BTUs.
A cubic foot of propane has 2,516 BTUs, whereas a cubic foot of natural gas contains 1,030 BTUs. Propane has double the energy content of natural gas. A 100,000 BTU natural gas furnace burns roughly 97 cubic feet per hour, whereas a propane furnace only burns 40 cubic feet per hour.
What is the highest energy-dense fuel per gallon?
Adapted from C. Ronneau, Energy, Air Pollution, and Long-Term Development, Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2004.
Different fuels have varying degrees of energy density, which can be assessed in terms of equivalent energy released after burning. The quantity of energy released by a given mass or volume of fuel is referred to as energy density. It can be measured in terms of gravimetric energy density (energy density per unit of mass) or volumetric energy density (energy density per unit of volume) (per unit of volume). When evaluating the energy efficiency of different fuels, the gravimetric energy density is important. At the same time, when comparing transportation modes, volumetric energy density is important since storage space (a fuel tank) is required to hold the fuel pushing a vehicle. Fuel quality is inversely related to its chemical complexity, hence the higher the energy density, the higher the fuel quality. Gases are high-quality fuels, while solids are low-quality fuels, with liquids in between. Hydrogen has the highest energy density of any fuel and is also the simplest chemical component known to man.
Gasoline, which is made by refining crude oil, has far more energy than coal (which is twice as low-grade as bituminous coal) or wood (three times). Methane makes up practically all of the bulk of liquid natural gas (LNG), whereas methane makes up around 85% of the mass of natural gas. Jet A-1 is the standard fuel for commercial jet planes, and it’s largely made up of kerosene with a few additives (antifreeze, antioxidant, and antistatic) because it’ll be exposed to high altitudes and cold temperatures. Bunker C fuel, on the other hand, is the primary fuel used in marine shipping and is one of the lowest grade liquid fuels available, although it is appropriate for the great majority of ship engines.
Despite the fact that methane and hydrogen have higher energy densities than gasoline, their gaseous state makes storage challenging. Furthermore, hydrogen must be created, which necessitates the expenditure of energy. In comparison to a conversion rate of 100 percent, capturing the solar energy equivalent of 1 kg of gasoline on a one-square-meter surface would take 100 hours. The lithium battery, which is one of the most efficient energy storage systems, can only store roughly 0.5 MJ per kilogram, highlighting the difficulty of manufacturing electric vehicles.
Is it better to have a higher or lower BTU?
The BTU rating of an air conditioner is a measurement of its cooling capacity. The energy used to remove heat from a room is measured in BTUs. As a result, the higher the BTUs, the more equipped an air conditioner unit is to cool a greater room.
What does 12000 BTU stand for?
When we say that air conditioners remove heat from your home, we’re referring to the fact that they move energy. BTU is a measurement of how much energy your air conditioner uses to achieve all of this. So, if your air conditioner has 12,000 BTUs, it implies it absorbs 12,000 British Thermal Units of heat every hour and moves it outside to make your inside environment feel better.
A gallon of propane produces how many BTUs?
Anyone who has ever switched an empty propane barbecue cylinder knows how hefty propane is, but how many people realize that one gallon of liquid propane weighs 4.23 pounds? Perhaps you recall the propane formula from high school chemistry (C3H8), but for the engineers and technicians who develop and install propane heating and cooking systems, this is merely the tip of the iceberg.
In fact, understanding some of propane’s physical features helps to clarify some of the safety standards that we follow and that everyone should adhere to.
At -44 degrees Fahrenheit, propane transforms from a liquid to a gas (its boiling point).
This is one of the reasons why, when installing new equipment, our experts use safety gear such as gloves and face shields.
The low temperature would rapidly freeze skin if they were splashed with liquid propane, which is known as a burn because of comparable effects.
Propane is a heavier gas than air.
This is referred to as its specific gravity, which is 1.52; air has a specific gravity of 1.0.
This means that propane gas can collect in dips and low areas on the floor, which is one of the reasons why you should leave your empty barbeque cylinder outside of the store when exchanging, just in case there is any propane remaining in the cylinder and it leaks.
The energy content of propane is one of the important elements that engineers must consider when designing heating systems. Homeowners and grill masters alike should be aware of the amount of propane they will consume for heating and cooking. The BTUs in a gallon of propane are 91,502. (or British thermal units). Heat system designers must factor this into their calculations when sizing HVAC equipment and propane tanks to achieve the desired heat output. But how about a brand-new 60,000 BTU-per-hour barbeque grill (which I want was mine)? It would take an hour and a half for all of the burners (there are six on that model) to burn through a gallon of propane (60,000 BTU/hr x 1.5 hours = 90,000 BTUs). Larger HVAC systems, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems, and Gas Heat Pumps are frequently specified in Therms or per thousand cubic feet of natural gas. One Therm equals 100,000 BTUs, or 1.1 liters of propane. 1,000,000 BTU is equivalent to 11 litres of propane in 1 MCF of natural gas.
Is moving from oil to propane worth it?
Simply switching from oil to propane saves around 18 percent, according to local energy pricing. The efficiency of the equipment increases from 82 percent to 96 percent when switching from a regular boiler to a high-efficiency condensing propane unit.