Alternative fuels in your region?

[daJohan]

Now we have discussed the price of gas/pretrol/diesel in your region in another thread. For me it would be interesting to hear what alternative fuels that are popular in your region.

I know methane gas (from fossil sources (natural gas)) is popular in northen Italy, mainly for politcal reasons and that they have a few Fiat models that can use it.
I've also read that methane gas is getting more common in Germany, promoted as an solution for environmental problems/Global warming. I assume most of their gas is produced from bio mass.
In Brazil they are running with E22 (22% ethanol) and possible still using E96, and they have a lot of makes to chose from.

I live on the west coast of Sweden where methane gas is quite common. It's a mixture of bio and natural gas. The rest of Sweden, E85 (85% ethanol) is quickly becoming more "popular".
Alternative fuels are still a nische product, but growing. For methane gas, which is about 30-40% cheaper than petrol here, we have a few models from Volvo, Opel and VW. For E85, which is only slightly cheaper than petrol, we can foremost buy SAAB 9-5 and Ford Focus (quite a common car actually).

So, what alternatives do you have in your region, which makes/models can you chose from, and how much do you need to pay?

 

[TheCracker]

Theres a lot of interest in the UK at the moment on the notion that you can, with little modification, run a diesel engined car on used cooking (vegetable) oil.

 

[Joey D]

I wish there was something in the US, but I think the only other fuel sourse is hydrogen and thats only for sale in Cali. I would buy a hydrogen power car if they were more popular here.

 

[Young_Warrior]

We could run our cars on fart.

 

[Layla's Keeper]

Well, at least supemodifieds and sprint cars burn methanol. No big hit to fuel prices there. 👍

 

[Driftster]

I've got a car that runs off of proteins and amino acids...

It's my escalegs

 

[T5-R]

Theres a lot of interest in the UK at the moment on the notion that you can, with little modification, run a diesel engined car on used cooking (vegetable) oil.

Yeah my brother saw a diesel Volvo estate full of vegetable oil crates the other day... either he was gonna make a lot of chips or fill up his car

I like the sound of LPG, just it isn't as widely available as unleaded and diesel yet. The government claims fuel duty is for damage to the enviroment etc... and that they encourage the use of cleaner alternatives like LPG... So why the hell did they increase full duty on LPG!?!! What a load of bull.

 

[daJohan]

Yeah my brother saw a diesel Volvo estate full of vegetable oil crates the other day... either he was gonna make a lot of chips or fill up his car

I like the sound of LPG, just it isn't as widely available as unleaded and diesel yet. The government claims fuel duty is for damage to the enviroment etc... and that they encourage the use of cleaner alternatives like LPG... So why the hell did they increase full duty on LPG!?!! What a load of bull.

I think LPG, as in "Liquified Petroleum Gas" has been widely deprecated to be seen as "not that much better than petrol". I dont know any details though.
What you should look for nowdays is CNG, Compressed Natural Gas (hopefully mixed with some bio gas).

 

[Freddie]

Theres a lot of interest in the UK at the moment on the notion that you can, with little modification, run a diesel engined car on used cooking (vegetable) oil.

No modifications actually. If the oil is clean enough (all the food-remnanst and other rubbish filtered away), all you need to do is mix it with white-spirit (10% i believe) and the car will run perfectly on that. Lots of money saved there by doing absolutely nothing to the car!

One could also try to get an used military oil-burner, I've heard they can run on anything remotely similar to diesel. And that's not limited to the stuff McD's uses.

 

[ExigeEvan]

I smelt a few vegetable oil cars when I was down west, all the farmers like to use it and there's hardly any police to complain. (It's illegal unless duty is payed.)

I know there's a few LPG pumps near me, and I know it's popular with landrovers, I assume because there's the space for all the equipment.

 

[Mad Murphy NZ]

Other than LPG there's nothing here.

 

[Ghost C]

There's only one alternative fuel I care about.

Toluene! The rocket fuel of champions.