In 1885 (cf back to the future 3), Doc Brown and Marty Mcfly are forced to use a steam locomotive to return to their present. At this time in history, there were no cars like a DeLorean, even though the rudimentary precursor models of the automotive industry had been around since the 18th century. It was just after 1885 that in Germany, first Karl Benz and then the group led by Daimmler, Maybach and Jellinek (Mercedes was the name of the latter’s daughter) developed the first cars comparable to the current ones. Soon after, in France and the United States, under the leadership of Henry Ford, one of the most important modern industries was born. these pioneering cars they worked with alcohol, and there were also electric or steam onesbut a petroleum derivative known as gasoline soon prevailed.
The arrival of oil
Indeed, the commercial history of the automobile cannot be understood without the first development of the oil industry a few decades earlier. So in 1859, just before the start of the American Civil War, Edwin Drake in Pennsylvania drilled the first oil well worthy of the name. The world’s first oil company, Standard Oil Co. Inc., has been making kerosene lamp oil since 1870. It was on the verge of bankruptcy when the ill-fated Tesla-Edison duo developed electric lighting in cities shortly thereafter, but the industry car came to his rescue. Those were exactly the same years that Marty and Doc used a coal-fired steam locomotive.
Coal, petrol, electricity and of course wood coexisted already at the end of the 19th century. This suggests that energy transitions are processes of superposition and not of immediate replacement. Without going any further, in 1989 the last Western European steam train was still running in Spainin the province of Leon.
leaded petrol
Many years later, in 1955, Marty is forced to hide his fabulous DeLorean to avoid attracting attention. His nemesis, Biff Bannon, was driving a Ford Super De Luxe at the time, only to find himself covered in muck after a chase. It was obviously a petrol car, just like the sleek Packard Custom Eight Victoria that Marty drives to take his mother to prom. In the era of cheap fuels, over 10 million cars were produced worldwide (currently over 80 million a year) and the car was already a symbol of the middle class.
In gasoline, a product called tetraethyl lead (tetraethyl lead, TELEPHONE). This improved the octane number, i.e. the anti-knock power of petrol and, therefore, the performance of the engine. Thirty years later, on October 26, 1985, at the beginning of Marty’s saga, TEL gasoline was still the dominant fuel. This heavy metal essence would still be used for decades, despite the fact that tetraethyl lead was dangerous and associated with the presence of anthropogenic lead in the blood of citizens.
The crusade to eliminate lead from gasoline
The discovery of this problem was accidental. He corresponds to the American scientist Clair C. Patterson, in an adventure that deserves a good cinematic screenplay. Briefly, Patterson worked on calculating the age of the Earth and the chemistry of the oceans by measuring the ratios between the different stable isotopes of lead. In these you discovered the massive use of tetraethyl lead had greatly increased the proportions of unnatural lead in the atmosphere.
In the mid-1960s, the geochemist made this situation public and defended the need to reduce or eliminate the use of lead in gasoline in various forums. Patterson was a true time traveler and went on to show that very ancient human bones contained hundreds of times less lead than those of his contemporaries. As is often the case in these cases, their investigations have not been well received by the industry and it took many years to eliminate tetraethyl lead from commercial gasoline formulation, something that happened in most countries in the 90s. Residue, for years it continued to be used in aviation, motorsport and motorsport, and until 2021 it was still used in some countries. The truth is, Patterson’s studies laid the groundwork for using lead isotopes as reliable environmental tracers. In his wake, eliminating the use of TEL in gasoline has recently been shown to reduce lead levels in the atmosphere.
The history of tetraethyl lead shows us how science and technology have been able to progressively improve the quality of emissions and the consequent environmental impact of the automotive industry. However, to improve the octane number, TEL has been replaced by other additives, including MTBE and ETBE (methyl and ethyl tert-butyl ether), highly volatile compounds which, when fuel is poured cause serious groundwater problems. In particular MTBE, the use of which was banned in the 2000s.
Turbodiesel fraud
At the same time, diesel vehicles have taken over a large part of the market. Thus, the famous turbodiesel or TDI popularized a diesel variant, while it was originally a motorization rather intended for trucks and other heavy transport, including submarines. For more than a decade, these TDI engines have been the best-selling in Europe, also thanks to later emissions figures they were found tampered with in an apparent collusion between producers and executives which invites reflection.
The fraud was exposed in 2013 by Professor Gregory Thompson and his colleagues at West Virginia University when they demonstrated that one of Europe’s leading car brands (many others were later shown to have) had a Software which only reduced nitrogen oxide emissions when the vehicle was on a test bench, and not when driving normally.
The fact that a scam of this magnitude went undetected for years calls for caution in the current situation. While today we are repeatedly shown the environmental benefits that electric or hydrogen-powered motors will have on the environment, a little critical assessment wouldn’t hurt, especially as, although we produce and use renewable energy, the materials needed to do so are not.
No power source is perfect
The automotive industry is a vital industry to our economy, and in today’s complex world, the temptation to repeating the history of the TEL or that of the TDI engines certainly exists. Nor should we forget other notorious fiascos such as that of biodiesel or the doubts generated by vehicles equipped with flexible gas engines.
On the other hand, in the present, past and future, Marty’s car not only needs a conventional engine, but to go back and forth in time, an additional supply of energy is needed to activate the “cooling capacitor”. flow”. For this, the energy of a lightning strike in 1955, a few grams of plutonium in 1985 and a homemade nuclear fusion reactor in a future flying car film are used.
However, in today’s reality, it would not be easy to find an option politically correct despite the diversity of energy sources available. Any possibility (except perhaps lightning) would have its detractors in a context where even electricity produced from renewable sources is increasingly contested due to the environmental impacts that some report. In any case, let us not forget that, perhaps beyond climate concerns, an important reason for improving energy technologies, particularly in transport, is to reduce the effects of air pollutionresponsible for the premature deaths of millions of people every year.
Looking for a tough DeLorean
Limited production in the early 1980s near Belfast, the DMC DeLorean had an almost 3-litre V6 engine and ran on leaded petrol. when it was created Back to the Future in 1985, the factory was already closed and from then on it became a cult vehicle. A Marty McFly in 2022 could therefore not buy a new DeLorean; It is not manufactured, there are not even spare parts to fix an old one. If he ever finds a way to get another one from a collector, he’ll be in trouble because it doesn’t use legal unleaded gasoline and would need special additives. Plus, you couldn’t walk through downtown Hill Valley or any of our towns without the ECO label.
Maybe Doc could turn it into an EV then, but most of our garages still can’t charge it. Another possibility would be to run it on hydrogen, but then the cost would exceed the profits of many years of rigged sports betting. If Marty and Doc, already desperate, decided to search the internet for information on choosing a new car, they would spend hours reading advice and recommendations of dubious objectivity. Ultimately, they may not know whether to stick with a combustion engine vehicle or prefer something seemingly more durable. To find out what the right decision is, they would have to go back to the future again…
José Luis Rodríguez Gallego, Professor, Institute of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning (INDUROT), University of Oviedo. This article originally appeared in The Conversation. Read the original.