Car Tech: What's your favorite alternative fuel?
- 4/24/07 5:45 PM
Hydrogen. Hydrogen. Hydrogen.
by Launchpad_72 - 5/3/07 10:34 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
Hydrogen is by far one of the most efficient forms of alternative energy, not to mention the cleanest.
When H2 combusts, not only does it release a very large amount of energy compared to other alt-fuels, it also emits a by-product: H2O. That's right. Water. Pure & Clean, no contaminates.
I will admit, however, that there are a few cons to this fuel.
New infrastructure will have to be placed throughout the country to support this fuel, as it is not a liquid by nature and would not be distributable by current liquid pumps.
Also, we currently don't have a great method for producing hydrogen, as our current methods either take a large amount of electricity to molecularly split water, or we tap natural reserves, making it no better than fossil fuels.
I believe, however, that as hydrogen becomes more popular, we will find a much more effiecient way of producing it. We just need to find it.
Oh, and as a side note, gas prices in Vermont are currently around $2.89/Gallon, and my current car is a Toyota Yaris, a sub-compact that gets about 45mpg. I spend about $20 a month in gas. Not bad.
not never noway hydrogen
by impala - 5/3/07 9:00 PM In reply to: Hydrogen. Hydrogen. Hydrogen. by Launchpad_72hydrogen is extremely inefficient to produce in a form appropriate for earthbound transportation. Thanks to thermodynamics it always will be. Technology can use thermo in novel ways, but it cannot thwart it.
To produce hydrogen as carbon neutral will require many mega nuke plants or massive solar arrays. There are better uses of that electricity.
it is also extremely dangerous at extreme pressure, and the most leak prone substance possible.
biodiesel can be carbon neutral and require little new infrastructure or vehicle changes.
oh, and if you combust H2 + Air in an IC engine you get some NOx.
Best fuel
by Robert Erickson - 5/3/07 10:37 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
Greetings,
The only viable fuel - long term - is dimethyl ether ( CH3OCH3 ) . Volvo did a very compredensive study a decade ago proving that, and nothing has changed. Ethanol is not viable until you can use the whole plant in ethanol production, which may never happen, and so ethanol is a subsidy to the agricultural interests; hydrogen is a net contributor to greedhouse gas emissions because of how it is produced. No other fuel comes close when all factors are considered. Awazing most folks have never heard of it... but not really. The oil and gas, and agriculture industries are stuffing their chosen solution down our throats and these "solutions" are about their profit agenda not about solving the problem all of us face.
Ammonia -- The "Other" Hydrogen Motor Fuel
by craigola - 5/3/07 10:39 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
Few folks think of anhydrous ammonia. It has no carbon, it already has an infrastructure, engines are already starting to use it (in California, for agricultural pumping purposes), it's clean, it's cheap, we can make it from domestic sources, and it runs in internal combustion engines with only some slight doping neeeded to change its combustion characteristics.
Tires
by Vince53 - 5/3/07 10:39 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
It sounds like a joke, but properly inflating your tires will increase your mpg, decrease pollution, and save wear on your car. A few decades ago, it was pointed out that if Americans would all inflate their tires properly, it would save us more oil that what we import from Iran.
By far Electricity is my favorite.
by scottwilkins - 5/3/07 10:47 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
You know what really kills me is so many people here are screaming 'Hydrogen', when all that does is create... you got it! Electricity! So, that's where the focus first needs to be is on the electrical part of the problem. Electrical vehicles still have some, ok a lot, of room to grow. But growing they are. No matter how the energy is produced to get that electric drive to turn, electricity is the mode of operation we need to focus on.
I really think my next car is going to be electric, especially if they continue the good advances that have been made lately.
Methanol, for Racing
by DaveMcLain - 5/3/07 10:50 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
Methanol is a great alternative fuel for racing use, makes good horsepower and torque, it's low in cost and is easy to tune. It also works well at high compression ratios. It's downfalls are that it's very sensitive to moisture contamination and with moisture present it becomes quite corrosive. It is also used at approx. 2 times the rate of gasoline.
REMEMBER WORLD WAR II? VICTORY WITH HEMP.
by winetaster - 5/3/07 10:56 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
I call for an accelerated switch from fossil fuel to hemp based fuel. The oil companies would negotiate prices with licensed American farmers instead of the OPEC nations.
more peanut farmers?
by impala - 5/3/07 9:06 PM In reply to: REMEMBER WORLD WAR II? VICTORY WITH HEMP. by winetaster"licensed American farmers"
Just what we need. More peanut farmers.
Alternate oil
by limbofrog - 5/3/07 11:11 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
How about all the oil of the coast of Alaska. And while we are using that supply to keep gas prices low, start building nuclear plants as fast as possible to replace most of the fossil fuel plants. Nuclear would supply enough relatively clean electricity to make hydrogen fuel cells more viable. Using hydrogen fuel cells while using the electricity from coal/oil power plants to generate the hydrogen is just plain stupid. It's more wasteful and inefficient than just burning the gas in your car directly. It feels all warm and fuzzy to see water coming out of your tailpipe, but if the fossil fuels are being burned at the power plant to generate the electricity used to collect your hydrogen/oxygen (via electrolysis), what's the difference?
Just perception.
We should build nuclear plants… Where do we get the money to take on such a grand endeavor? Why not use all the taxes currently spent on social security and welfare since those systems are both broken anyway. Or better yet, just take away many of the regulations currently imposed by law and make it economically possible for private companies to do it themselves. Or would that be too capitalistic?
Plug-in hybrid and then electric
by DrJohnOH - 5/3/07 11:39 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
The next step will be plug-in hybrids such as are coming down the pipe line in 2008 from Honda and Nissan. After that, we should see all electrics similar to the cars from Tesla Motors, but in sedan configurations. Hydrogen, while most desireable and least polluting once a greener way of producing hydrogen is developed since it now takes electricity that must come from somewhere, will still, it seems, be "20 years" from "now."
never hydrogen
by impala - 5/3/07 9:08 PM In reply to: Plug-in hybrid and then electric by DrJohnOHdue to thermodynamics, there will never be an efficient method of producing carbon neutral H2 on earth.
fuel cells maybe, but that's more like a battery.
Six percent doesn't sound like much, but...
by fuzzyCWD - 5/3/07 11:49 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
just to refresh, "One interesting factoid I found, from the hemp lobby, is that it would only take six percent of U.S. land to grow enough hemp to convert into vegetable oil for all of our driving needs. Six percent doesn't sound like much, but I would rather see what percentage of land suitable for agricultural production would be required." The thing about hemp is that it does not need agricultural land to grow. as pointed out by many that disagree with the hemp movement, it is a WEED, which means it can grow just about anywhere.
Alternative fuels - What we are steered to believe!
by Dialisys - 5/3/07 11:56 AM In reply to: What's your favorite alternative fuel? by wcunning
There are other alternatives than those that we perceive to be thr "preferred" alternative fuels.
Why do we not hear about them? - Well it is obvious. - Just look at the price of gas at your town pump!
Who is getting rich - and who is getting poorer?
The alternatives that we are being "conditioned" to accept (albeit they are being force fed to us) are under the control of - You guessed! - the fuel companies and Our Big Big Bro!
Why? Well, it is so obvious - but for those who dont get it - It is another way to control, Monopolise the product - market - and the dollars out of our pockets.
We are being blindly led to believe that we can influence our own destiny - Bullcrap! - I say.
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