What are the negatives of alternative fuel and alternative fuel vehicles?

Question

What are the negatives of alternative fuel and alternative fuel vehicles?

Answer 1

Starving the poor people in the world.  

Oh:  I forgot, less people less pollution.  So keep making that ethanol.

Corn is King!

Answer 2

The process by which ethanol fuel is made is not especially clean.  Combined with the fact that ethanol gets less miles per gallon means that it have a very small effect on pollution.  However, it does have an effect on many other things, namely food products, because it is made of corn.  Corn is used in a huge amount of foods and also as livestock feed - ethanol gas increases the prices of all of these goods.

Answer 3

they've had alternative fuel vehicles for years, ever since cars were invented actually.  Hydrogen is a hoax, so i guess the best bet would be alcohol.  Ethanol may cut into food supply, so methanol would be the best source, last year it cost about a buck a gallon to produce, which equals about two dollars a gallon compared to gas since it only has half the energy content.    Race car drivers have been using methanol mixes for years.  The last serious attempt to use alternative fuels was the last during the last fuel embargo overpricing back in the 70s-80s.  It is safer, less polluting, and cheaper to make our our methanol than to buy oil from countries that hate us.  I guess a few key payoffs by the saudies and oil companies will end any interest on being independant like it did before.

Answer 4

The most obvious one is the destruction of natural grasslands and forests to create farmland to grow so-called "eco friendly" fuel crops.   Ask the people who have been sounding the alarms about rain forest destruction for the last 50 years, all to no avail.

Answer 5

Shrub and  Little d**k's friends in Saudi Arabia won't make so much money off us so they won't be able to build and fund so many radical Islamic schools that teach hatred of Americans.

Answer 6

Mother nature presently has a recycling of our fossil fuels from plants. I have not looked at the alternative fuel cycle. The earth recycles the water ,our air with the help of plants.

Answer 7

Higher cost of production...

Greater pollution, (in parts per million)...

Higher cost of of corn, (or other plants), by the consumer due to their being used for alternative fuel, (the rule of supply & demand)...

Less miles per gallon, (because methane, (for example), is less efficient than gasoline).

Answer 8

A better question is "What are the disadvantages of clinging to and obsolete fuel technology as long as it stays profitable?"  Here's some examples of that from the mornings headlines.

Regarding gas burning internal compustion engines as a norm to measure other technologies by is silly, when you think about it.  Its the technology we use because of business decisions made a hundred years ago, not because its better.

Answer 9

that depends on what alternative fuel you are thinking about, and what vehicle you are thinking about.

hydrogen can be used in a couple of ways, either making electricity, or as use as a motor fuel in and of itself. it is clean burning, and fairly easy to make, but the infrastructure is not in place, and wont be for some time. this however is true of nearly all alternative fuels. you also need heavy steel tanks to contain hydrogen under pressure, and these tanks must be inspected every  5 years, or less depending on the amount of use they get.

propane, methane, and compressed natural gas(cng) are also clean burning fuels, but again the infrastructure is not in place, though with propane it would be easier to get in place. and these fuels also need heavy steel tanks.

nitro methane is right out. while it is a good race fuel, you would need far too much of it to run an engine on, top fuel cars run through 20 gallons in about 1 minutes time.

liquefied coal is probably the closest to being a "drop in" replacement for gasoline and diesel, and we have plenty of it in this country that is easy to get to. in fact we have enough to power the world for 500 years. getting new refineries past the government regulations, and the environmentalists are going to be quite difficult and expensive though.

as for vehicles, most are going to be quite small compared to fullsize trucks and suv's, and are going to be at a disadvantage should an argument occur.