Alternative Fuels

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Alternative Fuels
What is there besides gasoline?
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So, what is there besides gasoline?

• Well there are a few alternatives
• Biodiesel
• Electricity
• Ethanol
• Hydrogen

• Methanol
• Natural Gas
• Propane
• P-Series

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Biodiesel

• What is Biodiesel?
• Biodiesel is a fuel made from vegetable oil,
  animal fats, and used restaurant grease
• Why is a good alternative to traditional fuels?

• Lower emissions
• Renewable
• Little/no engine modification

• Can be blended with traditional fuel
• Biodegradable
• Infrastructure exists

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• How can Biodiesel help the environment?
• In a blended state with traditional fuel it can
  lower emissions such as a 20 blend lowers CO2
  emissions by 15
• 100 Biodiesel can lower CO2 emissions by 75
• Biodiesel produces fewer particulate matter,
  carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide emissions
• Its safe to store, handle, and transport cause
  of a high flash point of 150 degrees Celsius
  instead of 77 degrees Celsius for traditional
  fuels.
• Is Biodiesel practical?
• Yes, it uses the current infrastructure and
  technology and costs 1 to 1.50 per gallon

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Electricity

• How is it used as fuel?
• Electricity is used as fuel in the form of
  batteries and fuel cells.
• Are they practical?
• Batteries are a source of power but have limited
  range and require frequent charging and are more
  suited to short range community use
• Fuel Cells are more promising because they use
  other fuels to create the electrical energy

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Electricity

• How does a fuel cell work?
• A fuel cell uses a hydrogen and oxygen reaction
  resulting in the production of energy
• If pure hydrogen is used the car produces only
  two by-products Water and Heat
• What are the benefits of using electricity?
• For electric cars it would mean no emissions
• Although batteries have a short range, vehicles
  that use them can be used in communities to get
  around
• For fuel cells, if hydrogen is used it can have
  a longer range vehicle with no emissions.

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Ethanol

• What is Ethanol?
• Ethanol is an alcohol-based fuel made from corn,
  wheat, barley, trees, grass, etc.
• What are the benefits?
• Ethanol is renewable because it comes from
  fermenting crops
• Ethanol lowers carbon monoxide emissions
• Ethanol is widely available and can/is used in a
  10 Ethanol blend commercial vehicles today, with
  many other vehicles using higher blends
• Ethanol (with government tax incentives) is
  competitively priced
• Since ethanol can be made from a wide variety of
  plant life, it is very abundant and with
  depleting petroleum reserves, is a promising
  alternative

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Hydrogen

• Why use hydrogen?
• Hydrogen gas is the most abundant element on the
  planet
• Hydrogen mixed with natural gas can be used in
  internal combustion engine
• Hydrogen is the perfect fuel to run fuel cells
  cause pure hydrogen reacts only with oxygen
  releasing water thus no emissions
• Hydrogen burns more efficiently and creates
  energy more efficiently than gasoline

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Hydrogen

• What are some cons?
• When the public thinks of hydrogen, the
  explosion of the famous Hindenburg airship and
  this makes for low public opinion
• Hydrogen is extremely reactive with oxygen and
  makes it highly flammable
• Because of hydrogens reactive nature, concept
  hydrogen cars have/are going through many crash
  tests and results are good

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Methanol

• What is methanol?
• Methanol is wood alcohol, which can be made from
  natural gas, coal, or wood
• What are the benefits?
• Lower emissions
• Higher performance
• Lower risk of flammability
• Methanol can be used to easily make hydrogen
• Can be used in flexible fuel vehicles
• What are the cons?
• The biggest is the lack of vehicles to use it,
  manufactures have stopped making vehicles to run
  on Methanol

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Natural Gas

• Why use natural gas?
• Lower emissions
• Lower smog producing gases (60-90 Light-Duty
  use, 90 in Mid to Heavy-duty use)
• Can be used to make hydrogen to power the future
  fuel cell technology
• What is the future of natural gas?
• Natural gas is now being installed in 1 out of 5
  transit buses today
• Fueling systems can/are being installed in home
  or public facilities
• Aftermarket systems can convert vehicles to a
  natural gas system

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Propane

• What is propane?
• Propane is a liquefied gas made up of propane,
  propylene, butane, and butylene from petroleum
• What are the benefits?
• A 98 reduction in toxic emissions in light-duty
  bi-fuel vehicles
• In the quantities needed it costs less than
  gasoline
• Very accessible compared to other alternative
  fuels (4,000 publicly accessible facilities in
  the US)

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Propane

• What does the future hold?
• Currently 200,000 vehicles in the US use propane
  (mostly fleet vehicles like taxis and police
  cars)
• Since the current infrastructure can easily be
  converted to dispense propane it makes for a cost
  effective solution to gasoline by using the
  current fuel dispensing system

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P-Series

• What is P-Series?
• It is a colorless fuel made of natural gas
  liquids, ethanol, and methyltetrahydrofuran
• Where is it used?
• P-Series fuels are primarily used in flexible
  fuel vehicle in a pure form or mixed with other
  fuels
• This type of fuel is not widely produced or used
  like some of the other fuels

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Conclusion
Alternative fuels generally lower emissions
making them appealing for environmental concerns.
Many of these fuels are renewable and would
lessen the need for petroleum products. A lot of
these fuels are going to be used with the
developing fuel cell technology. With making the
public aware of these alternatives it could
hasten the development of these fuels and the
technologies to run them. For more information
visit the links below http//www.eere.energy.gov/
afdc/altfuel/altfuels.html http//www.biodiesel.o
rg/ http//www.4hydrogen.com/index.html http//www
.clean-vehicles.com/cleanv/

Created By Jared Goodall