You guys were talking about alternative fuel a little bit ago, and I have really put some thought into this subject, so I would like to share. I would like to point out that I live in the U.S., and therefore, my theories mainly apply to the U.S. exclusively.
Oil: First, we are going to run out of oil, we all know that, however, known proven oil reserves have doubled since 1980, considering that the world thought we where gonna run out during the Oil Crisis, maybe things aren't as bad as we think. Also, if idiots would stop "needing" SUVs and light trucks, and realized that what the really need are much more efficient automobiles, we could make our oil last much longer. Look at is this way, if the average efficiency of automobile doubles, you effectively double the oil reserves. This is what makes the current gasoline-electric hybrids (i.e. honda insight and civic hybrid, toyota prius, ford escape hybrid) so attractive, because they regenerate energy usually lost during braking (to heat and sound) and store it as electrical potential in a battery.
Hydrogen: Everyone says over and over that hydrogen is the greatest thing ever, because the combustion reaction of hydrogen (meaning heating in the presense of oxygen) yields water. While this is true, you can only get as much energy out of this reaction as you put into by splitting the hydrogen and oxygen from water molecules. This means that you still need to produce energy to make your hyrdogen, so you probably have to burn oil or coal or wood or something to make it. Making hydrogen gas from water yields about $10-15 per gallon hydrogen. Additionally, the current most cost effective way of producing hydrogen gas is by cracking hydrocarbons, which yields about $4-6 a gallon hydrogen, in comparison to about $2 per gallon of gasoline, if the hydrocarbons had been used for that purpose. Also, one mole (6.022x10^23 molecules) of hydrogen produces way more energy than one mole of octane. While this is true, one mole of hydrogen gas takes up a ton more space than a mole of octane, to combat this, automaker store hydrogen fuel in automobiles at extremely high pressure, currently around 5000psi (340atm). Right now, Ford and GM are seeking the right to use 10000psi tanks. Consider the safety issues involved in carrying extremely flammable gas under your child's car seat. 10000psi tanks of hydrogen are so dangerous, that most companies using said tanks store them a mile or more away from where they are actually working, and pipe the hydrogen in at much lower pressures.
Electric: First, batteries have pretty much reached the limits of performance, chemically. There is very little more energy storage to be obtained from the reactions taking place in a battery. This is why battery life on laptops is beginning to plateau, all increases in battery life nowadays are due to efficiency of the appliance operating off of them, the batteries themselves are not getting any better. Also, the lelectric energy to charge the battery has to come from somewhere, and you guessed it, oil or coal burning power plants.
Solar: Don't know all that much about this, but damn, cloudy and rainy days would suck.
Alcohol: This is my current favorite alternative fuel. First, it burns cleaner than gasoline, and isn't much more expensive, plus its made from corn, and we can always grow some more corn. In fact, we (as in the U.S.) could stop paying farm subsidies to farmers and instead ask them to raise corn and creating a huge alcohol production industry. Also, I believe there are many fine agricultural sectors in Canada and Russia (and I am sure elsewhere) that remain uncultivated for either lack of necessity or general apathy. For the performance minded enthusiast, alcohol is already used in most motorsports applications and yield better or at least similar performance to a similar gasoline engine. But this is the real kicker, nearly all motor vehicles in use right now can be easily and fairly cheaply converted to run on alcohol. The only major setbacks are that internal combustion engines rely heavily on the lubricating effect of the gasoline itself, which alcohol cannot replicate, unless some oil is mixed in with it (i.e. most two-stroke engines). Also, the possibility of not being able to produce enough alcohol to meet demand. There are two solutions to this, 1) mix the alcohol with gasoline and double, triple, quadruple the fuel supply, or 2) just drive less.
Wow, that was pretty freaking long.
👍 💡 👎
But the handling was awesome compared to the american cars I am used to driving, like my dads Z28, I passed a guy on a nice corner at about 110km/h with ease compared to a big american sports car.
