What are new alternative fuels, and what are the advantages and disadvantages.?

Question

What are new alternative fuels, and what are the advantages and disadvantages.?

Answer 1

Ethanol:

Advantages:

Carbon Neutral

Doesn't use oil that would fund terrorists

Can be made cheaply if made from sugar cane

Disadvantages:

It emits ozone which is poisonous and irritates the eyes and lungs and is the main component of smog

When made from corn, it is very expensive and takes a lot of corn

Biodiesel

Advantages:

Any diesel car can run it

Carbon neutral

Made from vegetable oil

Sulfur free

Your engine lasts longer

Disadvantages:

Takes harmful chemicals like lye and methanol to make it

Can be expensive

Lack of fuel stations

Hy-Boost

Hyboosting is when you inject hydrogen into the engine to burn the gasoline more thoroughly. You cannot get your car converted, it is a do it yourself job only.

Advantages:

50+ miles per gallon

Complete combustion emitting no hydrocarbons or carbon monoxide into atmosphere

If done right, hydrogen can be cheaply made

Disadvantages:

Currently hy-boosing is a DIY job only

Hydrogen is usually expensive to make

It is hard to convert your car

I have to go now

wish i could write more

p.s. im only 13

Answer 2

I can tell you a bit about cars that run on vegetable oil. I'm planning to get one in a few months.

Veggie oil cars are diesel cars that have been converted to run on more eco-friendly fuel. Although they're converted, they can still run on regular diesel. They can also run on biodiesel.

You get about the same mileage, and sometimes a bit better, when you run your car on vegetable oil. It still emits carbon dioxide, but it comes directly from the atmosphere (because it's what the plants breathed in) instead of underground deposits where they had been stored away for millions of years.

You can buy 5-gallon containers of new vegetable oil from Costco, or you can recycle used vegetable oil from restaurants. I recommend the latter, because not only is your oil free, but that oil would have been dumped somewhere if it didn't end up in your car.

The drawback is that you have to be dedicated to your car, or else it's not going to work. Recycling waste vegetable oil takes time and money. And you always have to carry extra oil. I live in Los Angeles, and there are about three biodiesel 'stations' near me. You also have to be ready to pay for the conversion (It's $700 for a Mercedes at Lovecraft Biofuels. They do it the same day though.) and maybe even trade in your car if you don't have one yet.

It's all worth it, though. A friend of mine has had his for almost a year now, and he loves it. I can't wait 'til I get mine.

Answer 3

Biodiesel is relatively new.  The advantage is that it reduces on greenhouse gas emissions.  This is because the plant material contains carbon from the natural carbon cycle, so when you burn it for fuel it's just releasing CO2 that's been in the carbon cycle.  When you burn fosisl fuels like gasoline, it's releasing carbon that's been stored up for millions of years which adds more CO2 to the atmosphere which increases the greenhouse effect and increases global warming.  CO2 is released in burning gas in order to farm and transport the biofuel, but it's an overall decrease in greenhouse gas emissions over burning gas or diesel.

The disadvantages to biofuels are that they take up agricultural land which could have been used to grow a food crop or a forest.  This causes the price of food to go up, it increases the use of resources like water and fertilizer to grow the biofuel crop, and there's not enough available land to grow enough crops for biofuels to make up a big percentage of our fuel needs.

Electricity as a fuel isn't new, but it's improving because electric vehicle batteries are getting more advanced.  Pretty soon there will be good enough lithium ion batteries that electric cars will be a viable alternative option.  The disadvantage is that right now they can't go very fast or very far without costing a ton of money, but battery technology will change that.  The advantage is that electric cars can create the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions of any potential vehicle fueling technology.

The same is true of hybrids, which are pretty new.  Their only disadvantage is a slightly higher initial cost, but they reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

Answer 4

A man in NC recently got fined several thousand dollars for operating a car that ran on bio-diesel.  Apparently, the government would love to have you believe that they're on your side, but if you stop funding them, they'll **** you pretty hard.

Edit:  btw, cellulosic ethanol seems like a good idea, but the way they're using it now is not.  It can be made from the waste products of plants (dead grass, the leftovers from corn, etc.), but they're not really using it that way.  In my opinion, the bottom line is alway going to be profit.  Forget about the economy and the environment; if old guys aren't getting richer then it's not going to happen.  I believe that everything is under control, and it has been for quite some time.  Gas prices increase over "concerns about some random ****".  They've forgotten that we still remember what gas prices used to be.  I have a feeling that even if we adopt an alternative fuel, we'll still be paying out of our asses.

Answer 5

When you have a problem first you define it. So, lets say your problem is, how can I save oil consumption. Or how can I get the best bang for the buck. In both cases, making modern diesel motors instead of old otto motors (gas engines) would save us more then 35% consumption. I drove a clean Diesel in Germany in 1978, with 95 mpg. Yes, the year 1978 and 95 mpg and you could inhale the exhaust coming out. All other current alternatives are to far out or are just to inefficent. despite what some claim.

Answer 6

Electric Car is the future.  

Advantage:

They are Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV), which means no more pollution in the highway. Furthermore they are now advanced to the point where the recharge time and mileage is comparable to  those of conventional cars.

Disadvantage:

Price.  Initial prices is high.  Expect this to go down though.

No recharge station.

No support from government which support the Iraq War to further their oil and war profits.

Answer 7

petrol and other chemicalz

Answer 8

Most of them will still depend on the C atom as that is where most of the power is found.