Bamford

Dennis Bamford

Patricia McGinnis

ENG105HB

4/27/2011

Alternative Fuels

This day in age, one of the world's main concerns is energy. Currently, we

rely on petroleum to run our cars, and household central heat, and electricity in

our homes. Petroleum is not only limited, but it is also dirtying up the world's air,

and depleting the ozone layer as it is burned. Alternative fuels are one of the

worlds most talked about issues, and many solutions have been brought forth, yet

none of them have been used to their full ability. Through the list of pros and

cons, one shall determine the importance of alternative fuels, and how bad the

pros outweigh the cons, thus forcing the reality of the matter that we need to

start moving towards these alternate forms of energy, and fuel.

In this paper I am going to specifically be discussing the alternative fuels

that are being researched, developed and used in automobiles. I am going to be

explaining to you the major fuels that are being researched and used. What they

are, how they work or differ from petroleum, and the pro's and con's of each.

The first fuel I am going to be discussing is natural gas. Or as it is used in

the automotive world, compressed natural gas (CNG for short). Compressed

natural gas is still reliant on the manufacture of petroleum so it is not the best

alternative. It does however not produce as many greenhouse gases when used

in an internal combustion chamber engine (ICE for short). That does make it a
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better step forward then gasoline. It has about the same energy content as

gasoline which makes the efficiency of it no better or no worse. It does however

have some drawbacks. The space required for CNG is greater than that of

gasoline. It is stored in pressurized cylinders as a compressed gas. This makes it

difficult to design a car to use this kind tank over the traditional fluid tank.

However automakers have over come that and produced factory CNG vehicles.

There were 11.3 million CNG cars on the road in 2009 (NGV Global). Latin

America has the highest population of CNG cars with Asia coming in second( NGV

Global). North America has the least out of any region. The other drawback is

refueling stations. There are very few in North America. Although they are

developing kits that tie into your home's natural gas heat for refueling.

Liquid petroleum gas (LPG for short) or also called autogas is consider a

green-er alternative fuel. It produces only half of the harmful fumes than

gasoline. LPG is commonly used on equipment that must run indoors like

zamboni's and fork lifts because of the reduced emissions. The C02 is the gas

that destroys the ozone layer. One liter of gasoline when run though a internal

combustion engine releases 2.3kg (NRMA). One liter of autogas only releases

1.5kg (NRMA). Aside from being very clean it is also cheaper to produce and sell's

for less than gasoline. However it has a lower energy content than gasoline so

there is a 20%-30& increase in consumption (NRMA). This basically means less

Miles per gallon. In Europe many cars already run on autogas. Many

manufactures like Ford, Hyundai, General Motors, and Volkswagen all are currently

producing vehicles that run on LPG.

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Hydrogen is one of the most researched fuels of the future for our

automobiles. There are however two types of vehicles that use hydrogen as a

fuel. A hydrogen internal combustion engine and a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. A

hydrogen ICE is simply a ICE that originally ran on gasoline and has been

converted to run on hydrogen. This is highly inefficient because of the low energy

content of hydrogen. Also the high tank weights used to store liquid hydrogen is

an issue. The real future in hydrogen as an alternative fuel is hydrogen fuel cell

technology. In a hydrogen fuel cell, energy is created by reacting hydrogen with

oxygen to produce energy to run electric motors. The big major advantage to a

fuel cell is that there is zero emissions. The only thing that comes from the

tailpipe is water. Hydrogen is also easily produced. There however are some big

drawbacks. First off this technology is very expensive. Many manufactures have

produces some test fuel cell cars and all have cost $300,000+(Autoblog Green).

Also this technology is very fragile and cannot handle real world use in a vehicle.

Another drawback to hydrogen fuel cell's are they cannot be stored or driven in

below freezing temperatures. Operational fuel cell's have water vapor that can

freeze there for not allowing energy to be produced.

Ethanol is currently the most used and tested alternative fuel. It is a much

cleaner direct replacement fuel for gasoline engines. Like CNG ethanol relases

about half the amount of C02 as gasoline. Ethanol is a completely renewable

resource. It is made my fermenting corn and using the alcohol that is created for

fuel. In most gasoline you buy in the USA there already is 10% ethanol in it.

Ethanol fuel is widely used in Brazil and in the United States both countries were responsible for 86
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percent of the world's ethanol fuel production in 2009 (Renewable Fuels Association). General motors

has been a big advocate in using ethanol as it came out the their flex fuel vehicles. This vehicles can

use either regular gasoline or “e85” which is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% regular gasoline. E85 is

readily avalable all over the county as more and more refill stations are popping up. However there is a

drawback to ethanol. Although ethanol is cheaper than gasoline, ethanol consumption in an engine is

about 51% higher than that of a gasoline engine. Which means it has a much lower energy content than

gasoline.

Everyone has heard of hybrids and electric vehicles of the future. Almost every auto maker is

producing hybrid vehicles. A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses electric motors in conjunction with a

regular gas engine. The electric motors help propel the vehicle, therefor the vehicle gets much better

gas mileage. They have been on the road for many years now and have had decent results. The miles

per gallon are not extreme but still much better than a vehicle with just an ICE. Recently there have

been a few companies developing all electric cars. General motors this year just released the Chevy

volt which is an all electric car. The volts battery pack can be recharged by simply connecting it to a

residential outlet. However it has a very low range of only about 100 miles. Also the cost involved

with charging you vehicle from your house can be costly. You may think you are saving a lot of money

by not having to purchase gasoline, however your electric bill will increase. Also it has zero emissions,

but the energy used to power your house is still created from fossil fuels. Although electric vehicles are

becoming more and more popular there still is some research and testing that needs to be done.

As you can see there are many alternatives to fossil fuels that are slowing becoming available

and used in vehicles. Ethanol will be the next big thing and you will see a big increase in the “e85”

compatible vehicles on the road. Also as the the new hydrogen fuel cell technology becomes more and

more tested perhaps one day we will be able to have emission free vehicles. Also as gas prices are

nearing four dollars per gallon, it is getting very expensive to drive. The majority of the alternative
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fuels being used and research are more affordable.

 Works Cited

"NATURAL GAS VEHICLE STATISTICS." NVG Global. 2011. Web. 6 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.iangv.org/tools-resources/statistics.html>.

NMRA. "LPG vs. Petrol | NRMA Motoring Blog."NRMA Motoring Blog | Road Safety, Road Rules,

Fuels, Car Care and Everyday Driving – NRMA Motoring & Services. 19 Nov. 2007. Web. 06

Apr. 2011. <http://www.mynrmacommunity.com/motoring/2007/11/19/lpg-vs-petrol/>.

Blanco, Sebastian. "GM CEO: Electric Cars Require Teamwork; Hydrogen Cars 10x More Expensive

than Volt — Autoblog Green."Autoblog Green — We Obsessively Cover The Green Scene. 30

Oct. 2009. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <http://green.autoblog.com/2009/10/30/gm-ceo-electric-cars-

require-teamwork-hydrogen-cars-10x-more-e/

Renewable Fuels Association. "2010 Ethanol Industry Outlook." Web. 6 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.ethanolrfa.org/page/-/objects/pdf/outlook/RFAoutlook2010_fin.pdf?nocdn=1>.