Why can’t we use food to generate the energy needed to power our cars/electronic devices?

Question

Our bodies use food for energy so why can’t cars or electronics?

In: Technology

Answer 1

The chemistry to do this is somewhat difficult and the result is far less efficient and convenient than what we have now. It is like trying to heat your home via burning wood vs. burning food. The latter is way more expensive.

We could in concept carry around tiny gasoline generators for our phones and other devices but that is also undesirable.

Edit: A gallon of gasoline has about the energy of 57 Big Macs, so your price per gallon would be around $228, ignoring the costs or losses involved in converting it to a usable form.