What alternative fuel sources are the best options?

Question

A.Nuclear

B.coal to oil

C.solar

D.wind

E. bio fuels

Answer 1

we do not waste energy at night.  we may not utilize capacity at night, but the energy doesn't disappear.

The best options are those that have the lowest cost per unit of energy.

nuclear is very low cost

Coal to oil is very expensive

Solar pv panels are very expensive, passive water and room are ideal lowest cost

wind in slightly expensive

biofuels are very expensive.

Answer 2

If the raw materials are fully utilized bio fuels seem to be the answer.  They are still carbon based but we are just recycling the Carbon Dioxide.  Global warming limits on Carbon Dioxide are totally unrealistic and would lead to world famine.  We need to harvest the sun's energy every moment we get to provide energy for our economies.

Nuclear and wind are a viable alternatives.  Wind is intermittant and requires a combination of sources

Answer 3

OTHER,

We currently wast energy at night, A 8 MW Nuclear plant may have a lowest it can run at 4 MW

We need to first build more energy storage.  Batteries are not the answer.  In Missouri they had a reservior they pumped into at night and drained down in the day.  (of corse the overflowed it once).  Things like this are more important than any fuel.  We need energy when we need it.  

In order for wind and solar to have any effect the energy must be stored.  

Answer 4

if i gave you my answer would you finance me at least $20 grand or 10 grand? im gonna use it on Project idea,dont worry i'll show the receipt of the expenses  

Answer 5

An up and coming resource that would be the best and stable source of fuel is algae farming.

We pipe sea water and CO2 into a stack of transparent tubes. Algae consumes sunlight and CO2 to produce oxygen and raw material for biofuel. A huge sea algae farm could be the perfect CO2 sink. It should be the better answer/alternative to CO2 sequestering. Algae could produce a few times the amount of biofuel compared to corn or sugar cane.

In Israel, an experimental algae farm is situated next to a diesel power plant to absorb the CO2. I am hoping they would exploit the vast and extremely sunlight rich Negev desert. If perfected, this simple technology would be able to harness the vast areas of desert in the mid-east. I think solutions would be needed to supply the amount of CO2 and sea water required into the desert interior and to counter winter/night freeze.

Current use of wind power carries the disadvantages of unpredictable availability of wind. Unlike hydro plants where flow could be adjusted to meet demands.

Wind power should be used to mechanically drive water up a reservoir, where the water is to generate hydroelectricity. Wind could also be used for compressing air into huge metal bottles. That would help preclude use of harmful lead-acid batteries.

Multi layer photo-voltaic sheets that would convert streets and building surfaces into harvesting solar energy.

Thermal convection harnesses heat where photovoltaic cells cannot.

Piezo-electric shoes: You won't need to worry your ipod, cell phone or blackberry would be out of charge. I could be lost in the wilderness and could keep my cell phone signal alive for rescuers to locate me.

The holy grail of fuel-cell technology - ability to convert hydrocarbon fuel, rather than extracting hydrogen, electrochemically into electricity with significant nett gain of energy.

Answer 6

E.    Green algae self produces, feeds on Co2 helping the atmosphere, when dried and compressed, release oil that can be easily proccessed into environmentally superior fuel that actually increases the life of an engine and the compressed dried algae is highly desired as a ingrediant for vitamins as well as feed stock for animals as is.

Answer 7

B.

Answer 8

There is no ONE best answer. The ideal is a blend of technologies. This prevents us from being sucker punched by a shortage of one resource. Using solar and wind as primary with nuclear as a secondary during high demand is a strong model for residential supply.

Also, battery technology does need to grow, as does research in to carbon fiber nanotubes for capacitors.  

Answer 9

Any renewable source mixed with a higher knowledge of energy conservation!  

Answer 10

We asked one of our associate's brother to help answer this question since he is an energy consultant and a  registered professional engineer who has worked in the energy industry for many years. His answer may be helpful:  

The best alternative energy source is conservation: to use less energy.

Americans represent 4% of the world’s population but use 25% if the world’s energy.  Each of us need to learn how to use it more efficiently.   Using less energy has the added benefits of saving us money and reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil and gas.  

2 )  Wind Energy

Wind is currently the best alternative source of new energy.  A number of utilities in the US have completed long term power supply forecasts and were surprised to find that a kilowatt hour or wind power will be cheaper than a new coal plant on a long term basis.   This was because with wind, the fuel cost is zero and there will be no carbon cost in the future as there will be with coal.  The new windmills are running up to 50% capacity and are available over 95% of the time.

Power cost in the US with the current fleet of plants in the US is as follows: coal is the cheapest, then nuclear, wind, hydro electric, bio fuels, natural gas, oil and solar is the most expensive.

3)     Solar

Solar is the currently most expensive power on a bulk basis.  Solar is cost effective in remote locations where the cost of running power lines is high.  For example, solar battery street lights are cheaper in many locations due to the cost of running wires along the highway.

4)     Bio fuels

There is a lot of development going on in bio fuels.  These differ from fossil fuels in that the fuel is grown and harvested rather than taken from the ground (coal, oil natural gas).  The current boom in Ethanol started as it was added to gasoline in order to reduce the air pollution from cars.  Ethanol replaced a toxic additive MTBE which was previously used.  MTBE is a carcinogen and leaks out of tanks into the ground water.   Ethanol is far safer to use and it has been a real benefit for the farmers in the US. There are problems with many bio fuels however.  It takes about 5 gallons of water to make one gallon of Ethanol and a typical 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant will use 500 gallons per minute of water.  In a year the plant will use 500 million gallons of water - it would empty a lake one mile in diameter that is 25 feet deep.  

Corn based ethanol also takes a lot of fertilizer in the process.  In the future, the new cellulose/ grass based ethanols will be far better for the environment.   Because of the limitations, ethanol will only supply a portion (up to 20%) of the fuel supply for the US.

A number of large US utilities, have stated that they are not going to build any new coal plants and that they will get new energy supplies from wind, hydro and renewables.  

There are opportunities to use all of these sources and it is likely that many or all will be needed in the near future. For more informaion about alternative energy powertrains in vehicles, hybrids, new- and used-car reviews, previews, driving blogs, videos, photos and quality ratings, please visit JDPower.com.

Answer 11

ill have to say other i am still waiting for someone to come up with the idea of someone saying lets find a way to turn trash into a safe alternative fuel without puting harmful vapors in the air i mean we throw it out and it just stays in the landfill so why not find a way to reuse it.

Answer 12

A. Reliable, safe, clean, cheap, millions of years of fuel, what more could you want?

B. Worse than digging oil out of the ground if all the energy has to come from coal although if you got the energy from nuclear and just used the coal as a source of carbon then it might make a decent oil replacement (and way of keeping coal miners in work while you shut down coal power plants), in the long term you'll probably want to replace coal as a feedstock of carbon but coal to oil might be worth looking into.

C. In the right place (i.e. geostationary orbit and beam the power down as microwaves) this would be great but on Earth it's only really of use for intermediate loads.  Would need better energy storage technologies to be a viable baseload source and even then the cost of overcapacity and energy storage is likely to make it pretty expensive.

D. Unreliable enough to be useless, just like with solar better energy storage technology would make it useful but when you factor in the costs of energy storage and overcapacity it'll come up too expensive to compete with nuclear.

E. Burning food for fuel is just so stupid.  That cropland should be used for growing food for humans, not SUV's (and if we have too much cropland we can return some to nature).

Answer 13

B and E. I have a diesel and can run thoose fuels or waste veggie oil,and waste motor oils.