Gasoline in Turbines

Gasoline for Electricity Generation
Gasoline is an incredibly powerful fuel source, possessing around 21.5 million joules per pound, compared to coal at around 11 million joules. Gasoline, or petrol, is currently used in automobiles, planes, and other vehicles due to its raw power and high energy density. Electricity produced from gasoline currently costs X per kilowatt hour, compared to X for coal. However, a lot of gasoline is currently wasted; the efficiency of many automobiles is lacking as much of the gasoline is wasted generating heat. A typical internal combustion engine only possesses about 26% thermal efficiency and only about 20% mechanical efficiency.[3]

Comparatively, industrial steam turbines, such as those used in coal plants, generally have around 35-40 efficiency, and can theoretically be up to 60-90% efficient. If the energy generated from gasoline was produced more efficiently, from more efficient steam turbines, was converted to electricity and used in electric cars, it's easy to see how it could potentially be much more efficient than being used in standard automotive engines, and for other energy needs.

If this energy was stored as electricity, this means that the energy, over the power grid and through cars, could easily be 3 times more efficient when used in vehicles after the energy is generated with multi-million dollar steam turbines. This would mean that we would not only get three times as much energy from gasoline as we do now, but that the cost of gasoline would essentially drop by 1/3 its current amount, being, essentially, 3 times more efficient. If the energy was generated in a more efficient machine before being used in vehicles one could easily reduce the price of locomotion drastically and reduce emissions. In addition, the reduction in demand could also reduce prices, thus decreasing the cost of gasoline even further.


Demand
Additionally, much of the price of gasoline is due to demand and the difficulty of extracting it to meet that demand.[1][3] If demand fell, the supply and demand economic price floor would not only fall, but also it's price of recovery. While demand for oil spiked, due to the extremely fast paced growth of developing country's in the world, and oil productions inability to fully meet this demand, oil production prices themselves have to increase to meet the demand. Oil wells are often assisted with natural pressures or require very little pressure to get oil out of them; oil well depth and the amount needed to be obtained can increase the price of oil exponentially, as drilling requires progressively more oil out of an oil well to get more oil. If the oil is removed slowly, than the cost of oil from that well decreases exponentially; however, the same is true for extracting oil at much faster rates. Thus, supply and demand factors due to world economic growth has not only increased the price indirectly, but directly by requiring more oil to be drilled from wells than is economically feasible. 


Diesel 
Diesel fuel, in general, is more efficient in most engines than gasoline alone. With a longer stroke, more oxygen is allowed into the engine which increases the efficiency somewhat. A typical diesel engine can see up to 40% efficiency, which is roughly double that of standard gasoline engines. This makes it ideal for high efficiency; in used with turbines

Diesel can be refined from the same crude oil source as gasoline*




Turbine

The average coal turbine in the U.S. has approximately 35-40% electrical efficiency, or how much efficiency could be transformed into electricity; the average automobile has approximately 20% mechanical efficiency, which is around half of this level. The engine to electricity efficiency is*

Thus, in use with turbines, gasoline or crude oil based electricity could be substantially more efficient than converting it to mechanical energy in an engine alone, although there would be losses over the power grid and in electric cars, with electric cars typically being 80%+ efficient and power losses of 5-10% occurring over the power grid, thus losing no more than a quarter of the energy through this method from source to wheel on road.


Algae
Algae could be used to capture the exhaust from the steam turbines to prevent it from going into the atmosphere, and then use that algae could be used to produce ethanol. As of now the standard 5-10% ethanol gasoline fuel blend currently used in most unleaded standard gasoline seems to possess the equivalent fuel efficiency of gasoline, despite ethanol being somewhat weaker than gasoline. This means that burning ethanol in addition to gasoline in the right concentration seems to keep its power level at the same level as straight gasoline, and is basically like adding free fuel, simply by reusing previously discarded waste products.


Energy Independence
It would also make self-reliance on energy a much more feasible task. The United States in 2004 imported nearly 65% of its oil from other countries, and this was considered the peak import year for the 2000 onward period (foreign oil usage is expected to drop to 54% by 2030).[1][2] If the efficiency of the United States’ use of oil was increased by just 3 times its current amount, all the gasoline used in the United States could come from local sources. This means that a dependency on foreign imported oil, some of this oil that could potentially come from questionable sources, would be eliminated and the United States’ energy supply needed for daily expenses and even potentially economic prowess could be entirely in its own hands.[1][2] Additionally,

In conclusion
The price of practically everything could fall (given the costs of transportation and manufacture), various energy intensive products, pollution could be virtually eliminated and various dependencies on foreign oil could be removed, allowing country's to prosper without politically unfavorable conditions.

While we would still be reliant on gasoline, the said process would create a lot less pollution and would provide vastly more energy for no foreseeable increase in cost in regards to fuel consumption, being a good option for all of the United States’ and other affiliated countries’ energy needs.