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By the time oil has been explored for; drilled for; transported to refineries; cracked; fractionated by distillation: what percentage do you suppose has been burnt to achieve that end. When you add in the percentage of oil taken to build and heat the oil industries workers' housing; cook their meals; drive their kids to school etc. The percentage sold off to provide executive salaries and bonuses; to pay lobbyists and their friends in power. To pay for wars that keep oil fields in friendly hands.
Just how much of an efficiency joke would that be in total — if looked at honestly and openly ? And I'm writing that in a reasonable tone of voice, as far as I can tell. Certainly those figures must be calculated and obfuscated by economists; they must be available reasonably easily. Several people on this forum may well have paid for their yachts by researching and knowing that invaluable wisdom.
Also: if we joke about it long enough, someone will come up with an improvement. Here's one — when the compressed air decompresses to run the motor it will cool. that cool exhaust can be diverted over one end of a Stirling engine to provide extra rotational energy. Enough improvements and we shall have a viable system. When the air is compressed to store it, it will warm up. That heat can be dissipated by running it over the opposite end of the same Stirling engine: it will compress better when cooled, too. Now the joke is not looking so bad.
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