Car Tech forum: What's your favorite alternative fuel?

Instead of wasting fuel, perhaps we should DEMAND that automakers buck the system as produce vehicles that really do get fuel economy.
I have read the debate here regarding the 200mpg carb and other inventions. No they are not really hoaxes.

During the time I worked as a technician at a Ford plant (Ford North Penn Electronicx Facility) I had the rare opportunity to witness an amazing display of fuel efficiency.

A 351CID V8 was used with a 1 liter bottle of fuel. THis test began about 4:00PM as I was leaving for the day. When I went to do some work on some printers on the factory floor, I stopped by to see the test that was run the previous evening.

The short of it is that the engine only burned about 1/3 of 1 liter in about 12 hours. The test including simulating city and highway driving. The engineer at the console when I inquired, showed me a display that read 249.xx/MPG! He said that it was basically the same princple that made the 200mpg carburetor work. Of course with today's computer control the ignition and timing of a vehicle can be very exact and with a simple methos of vaporizing the fuel, it yields more combustion and has very little wasted. Of course when I asked when we could expect such mileage on a Ford F-150 he smiled and said, "Not in our lifetime."

Truth be told, we have technology that can reduce dependence on oil, but it is not being used. If hybrid vehicles used the same method as a diesel(electric) locomotive, with batteries to store energy, fuel could be stretched to that 200/mpg goal.

But the real breakthrough will be when we can get off of the burning of fuels to create useable power. But so long as greed drives the economy, we will not see and major change in energy producttion and use.

The government is always telling us to make sacrifices for the best interests of the country. Pay more, use less, do without, make your contribution. I say this is bull-pucky, and that it is gross protectionism for the oil and power industries that want to remain the control.

Yes, my favorite fuel is Wild Turkey 101, but if it is unavailable I can rev up on Jack Daniels, alternatively, almost as well.

Since I don't drive (I'm a committed autophobe) I'll have to say anything with a high caffeine level ! If your a serious reader of scence fiction , you may have made a note of the steam Volkswagons mentioned in Ersula Leguin's Lathe of Heaven ... I foresee wider use of bicycles in the coming years too ...

Walk, run, swim, or cycle... Calories - that's my favourite alternative fuel. And for some of the coolest new ways to get around take a look at the velomobile concept (google it or search for it on www.YouTube.com)... Awesome!

compressed air is extremely inefficient. batteries are better.

Hydrogen is a rocket fuel and it doesn't take much for-thought to see the issues that can come up. The stuff converts to a gas rapidly so you'll be in one big explosion just after freezing to death.

Bio diesel makes a boat load of sense. Everything alive has oil in it, so why not use the futures oil deposits now? Specially sense it wouldn't add to the hydrocarbon issue.

Everything is energy. E-mc2....No energy, no mater.

The only real issue we have in the world is distributing an alternate fuel. Stuff burns... internal combustion engines need stuff that burns is all.

We need gas stations...That is all we need. If we really wanted to slow global warming all we would have to do is remove the tax on natural and petroleum gases used in transportation for a time. There...I just solved the problem. And yes, that would solve the problem.

The sad thing about it all.. Is the issue is so simple to overcome its hardly a topic. Engines need stuff that burns...Its the money issues that need to be overcome...Oil companies don't want people making Bio Diesel or alcohol at home. Oil is rare enough to keep the suppliers down is all.

You miss understood. My claim was that the oil companies are the problem. They need a fuel that has limited sources so they can make a buck.

As far as rocket fuels you have a messy one. Sure Hydrogen isn't used and the reasons why are of great interest. Expense being the chief reason.

(the Space Shuttle uses high-thrust, high-density SRBs for its lift-off with the liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen SSMEs used partly for lift-off but primarily for orbital insertion.)

So...The space shuttle uses H2.

I hope this helped.

The battery scientists will free us from the yoke of foreign oppression. They are the new minutemen.

I love all of you niave tree-huggers that suggest all of these alternative fuels, which either don't exist or are much dirtier/expensive than gasoline.

See http://www.caranddriver.com/columns/9978/patrick-bedard-page2.html

Today, these alternative fuels would create TWICE the emissions of gasoline....

More research and development needs to be done before we just switch.

Now, if you want cheap and clean electricity, let's go nuclear!

Options are many, but we will never again have such and abundant source of concentrated energy, almost ready to use, as oil. Oh well, we have to make it ourselves now.

Electricity is an obvious final answer for use in autonomous vehicles, for sure. Read about this demonstration vehicle for reasons, including elimination of many mechanical systems from the drivetrain: http://www.pmlflightlink.com/archive/news_mini.html
Search for "hybrid mini" for further enlightening commentary.

They use a fossil-fuel primary source for good reason: tremendous energy with small volumes and light weight. They worked hard to reduce the need to carry batteries, I'm sure, because they are the opposite.

Electricity has to come from somewhere, get transferred to the vehicle, and (the worst part) be carried with the vehicle. Future advances will improve on our current battery options, but our near future will still require a concentrated fuel for combustion or conversion. What that fuel is (or those fuels are) will be determined by concensus, according to what is available, where in the world. Very likely we will use electricity to synthesize a fuel, only to carry it for conversion back to electricity.

Here's something more interesting to read about: plasma gasification. The promise is that we might disassemble our garbage at the atomic level, using electric arcs to change it to a plasma state, and end up with a fuel gas "syn-gas" (CO and H2) and a neutral slag of harmless simple solids. It is sad that it will produce more energy in syn-gas than it would consume (in electricity), therefore can operate as a power-plant as well. If only we can figure out how to make a better liquid fuel from that (guessing butane or an alcohol), then we have pretty good answer.

Whatever happens, it is certain that we will have to keep on thinking and working on the issue!

Plug-in hybrids (and/or solely rechargeable electrics w/o fossil fuel engine) recharged with electicity produced by wind tubines, scares the bejeezus out of the Saudi royal family to a far greater extent than any other currently vialble alternative fuel technology.

Scares the bejeezus out of the multi-national oil firms, too.

Well, actually the stuff you put in the car would be hydrogen, but the important thing would be that it would be made from water using electricity from a thorium power plant. Check out www.thoriumpower.com No greenhouse gases, 1/10 of 1% as much radioactive waste as uranium, no nuclear explosion potential, lots of other advantages.

That little dongle hanging from the bottom of your rearview mirror is there to eliminate glare from headlights behind you. It amuses me how many people seem clueless about this standard piece of equipment in every single car. When the lights behind you get in your eyes just flick that dongle and you'll still see everything going on behind you at night, just without the blinding glare. Flip it back for daytime use. Happy motoring.

I think everything happens for a reason.
For some reason we are on a planet that consists of >70% out of H2O.
It doesnot polute and every life form on earth needs water in some way. If we split the water and bunr the hydrogen, we are back to the original material---water. So the very same fuel is recycled without byproducts to the very same fuel we started with.
Is'nt that wonderful. Problems with fuelcells and the like?
We simply have'nt figured out a better way to handle the hydrogen yet. Instead of focusing on the shrinking crude oil reserves, we should focus our attention and thoughts on the huge "fuel source" that is everywhere on our plannet. Besides the crude, usage of refined crude oil prods. and the refining process itself, all cause pollution and put strains on our environment.

Simple combustion reaction:
CH4 + 02 -> H20 +CO2
Combustion Reaction without fuel:
O2->O2
As you can see Oxygen doesn't burn (react) without a fuel. It simply doesn't work...