Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Vehicles] Gunpowder Engines and Stirling Engines

Anthony · 04-22-2021, 06:12 PM

The specific energy of gunpowder is 3 MJ/kg, as compared to 46.4 MJ/kg for gasoline (or 10.4 if you include oxidizer instead of using atmospheric oxygen), and it has a huge number of issues (expensive, solid fuels are hard to work with, engines don't generally like large quantities of soot, etc). You could use it to produce steam but it's harder and more expensive than just using the charcoal you need anyway directly.

04-22-2021, 06:12 PM	#2
Anthony Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Berkeley, CA	Re: [Vehicles] Gunpowder Engines and Stirling Engines The specific energy of gunpowder is 3 MJ/kg, as compared to 46.4 MJ/kg for gasoline (or 10.4 if you include oxidizer instead of using atmospheric oxygen), and it has a huge number of issues (expensive, solid fuels are hard to work with, engines don't generally like large quantities of soot, etc). You could use it to produce steam but it's harder and more expensive than just using the charcoal you need anyway directly. __________________ My GURPS site and Blog.