What is the best source of energy or good Fuels?

 Best source of energy & good Fuels

So who should be considered as an excellent source of energy? 

We use energy from various sources to work in our daily lives.  We use diesel to run the train.  We use electricity to light the streetlights on the road or we use the muscle energy in the muscles to go to school by bicycle.Muscle energy for physical functions, electrical energy for running various devices, chemical energy for cooking or driving vehicles.

All these energies are derived from some or the other energy source.  We need to know how to choose the source of energy to get it in its useful form. 

Let's think about an Activity

In Considering the various options we have to choose the fuel for cooking. 

What criteria would you consider when trying to place a fuel in the range of good fuels.

Would your choice be different if you were,

(a) living in the jungle?

(b) Would anyone live on a remote mountain village or small island? 

(c) Would life be alive in New Delhi? 

(d) Would life have lived five centuries ago? 

in How are the factors different in each of the above situations? 

After doing  the above activities we got so much information that the choice of a particular energy source or fuel to perform certain tasks depends on many factors. 

For example, when choosing a fuel we will ask ourselves the following questions. 

(i) How much heat is released in the combustion process? 

(ii) Does it produce very large amounts of smoke? 

(iii) Is it readily available? 

Can you think of three more questions about fuel? 

What are the factors that limit our choice of options when selecting fuel for a specific task such as cooking from the available types of fuel?  Does the fuel you choose also depend on the task at hand?  For example, should we choose one fuel for a specific task like cooking and another to heat the room in winter? 

In this way we can now say that an excellent energy source is one that

• operates in large quantities per unit size or mass,
• is readily available,
• is easy to store and transport.