The rapidly growing literature on biofuels and many initiatives looking for alternative energy sources shows an amazing variety of options proposed by experts and visionaries. All these options are being proposed as feasible and/or highly desirable solutions to replace our use of oil.

In order to ascertain whether or not a certain source of energy would be an appropriate input for a system, one must first carefully observe the characteristics of the energy system. We cannot feed gasoline to humans, or power a refrigerator with pizzas. When refuelling a vehicle in a modern gas station, the driver must first select the appropriate type of fuel: gas or diesel, regular or premium octane rating.
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The terms fuel economy and fuel consumption; these two terms are widely used, but very often interchangeably and incorrectly, which can generate confusion and incorrect interpretations:

Fuel economy is a measure of how far a vehicle will travel with a gallon of fuel; it is expressed in miles per gallon. This is a popular measure used for a long time by consumers in the United States; it is used also by vehicle manufacturers and regulators, mostly to communicate with the public. As a metric, fuel economy actually measures distance traveled per unit of fuel.
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