The Future Of Alternative Fuels

The second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States is related to transportation, the burning of oil to produce energy in a combustion motor. The combustion process inside of engines is what produces the carbon matter that is emitted into the air through the exhaust system on gas-powered vehicles. Gas-powered transportation is accountable for 24 percent of the global carbon emissions; this should not come as much of a surprise given the amount of urban sprawl that is being seen in the United States and across the globe. In the past decade, the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States government, and major car manufacturers have been working in conjunction to find ways to provide a “greener” form of transportation (EPA, 2011). This has included testing the use of hydropower, ethanol, natural gas, biodiesel, and electricity as a means of powering vehicles, which has led to the introduction of hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles run on electricity and gasoline, the byproduct of oil that is generally used in the engine combustion process of vehicles (U.S. Department of

I believe this switch is vital to our future. With gasoline prices volatile and the Obama administration committed to easing the United States ' addiction to oil, many Americans seem to be taking more interest in pursuing alternative fuels. These alternative fuels include those derived from farm crops and other renewable organic sources. Among the most widely available are biodiesel and vegetable oil, both of which can be used to power a diesel engine.

With the supply of fossil fuels steadily declining, gas and oil is becoming harder to harvest which means it is getting more expensive. Fossil fuels take millions of years to be naturally produced, yet each person burns gallons of gas per day (Maehlum par. 5). Though fossil fuels are produced naturally, when burned they release nitrogen oxides gases into the atmosphere, which contributes to the formation of smog and acid rain. According to the EPA, major sources of these nitrogen oxide emissions come from cars and trucks, coal-fire powered plants, large industrial operations, and ships and airplanes (EPA par 3). By reducing the number of gas powered cars on the road, we can reduce the amount of harmful chemicals we are releasing into our atmosphere.

Each gallon of gasoline you burn creates 20 pounds of GHG. That 's about 7 to 10 tons of GHG produced a year for a regular vehicle (“Reduce Climate Change” 1). Getting better gas mileage is a good thing because it means that people can get better miles per gallon without releasing as many carbon emissions. According to Barack Obama’s administration, they have approved regulations that will force automakers to nearly double the average gas mileage of all new cars and trucks they sell in America by 2025 (Krisher 1). This will make it so all automakers will produce vehicles that will be less detrimental to the environment and will help fend off the hazardous effects certain to come with climate change. Fuel efficient cars are considered advantageous because of their “smaller gasoline engine”, which release fewer pollution emissions (“Fuel Efficient Cars...” 1). A car that is considered fuel efficient does not consume a lot of gas and gives the best possible mileage. The less fuel consumed by the car, the less smoke that will come out of the exhaust. As a result, the damage done to the global atmosphere is less ruinous. Gases, like carbon dioxide are harmful to us as well as our environment. They aid in depleting our ozone layer, causing detrimental global climatic changes. Fuel-efficient cars will help in reducing pollution by at least 50% (“Environmental Benefits of

Bio-fuels are also known as agro fuels. They are a renewable source of energy made from animal and vegetable material and a large portion of municipal solid and industrial waste. Bio-fuels are major sources of fuel from biomass. Biomass is any organic material stored in the tissues of living plants and animals. Plants generate their energy from the solar power using the chlorophyll in the leaves to create tissue from water in the ground and carbon dioxide in the air and animals take their energy from plants either by directly eating plants or by eating other animals that have eaten plants. Even though biofuels are sources of energy obtained from renewable resources, the positive effects to the environment are far outweighed by the negative effects to the environment from the production of these biofuels. Our need for energy is increasing day by day for heating, cooling, cooking, driving, etc. One of the major reasons for the development of bio-fuels is the act that fossil fuel oil reserves are limited. Based on total worldwide oil reserves of 143.1 thousand million tons of oil (end 2001) and a worldwide oil consumption rate of 3510.6 million tons, it is estimated that the oil reserves will probably last until 2044. Also, there has been increasing concerns regarding global emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxides. Biodiesel, which is the most popular form of bio-fuel, is used in any diesel

When researching the effects of biodiesel versus vegetable oil on a vehicle the results were interesting. Due to the increasing gas prices and the Obama Administration to wean the U.S. off of the addiction of oil, people are starting to switch to alternative fuel. ("Diesel vs. Biodiesel vs. Vegetable Oil | Homegrown Fuels - Consumer Reports." Diesel vs. Biodiesel vs. Vegetable Oil | Homegrown Fuels - Consumer Reports. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2014.) this would include farm crop and renewable organic material. they are also in use with biodiesel and Vegetable oils. Developed from vegetable or animal fats, biodiesel is functionally identical to petroleum diesel. Adherents claim it pollutes much less than regular diesel. A relative of biodiesel is plain, edible cooking oil. Because it's not financially practical to fuel a car with cooking oil from grocery store shelves— a

Biofuels are better than traditional fuels because they decrease the national dependency on foreign fuel. The Minnesota biofuel association provides the article “ETHANOL AND REDUCING FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCY” expressing how the dependency of fuels decrease due to biofuels. “ethanol has helped America lessen its dependency on foreign oil. In fact, increased production of renewable fuels such as ethanol were key components of the Energy”(1). Biofuel contains materials that are found locally. Therefore, there would be no need to find fuels in foreign places. There would be no need to go underground or under the sea to find fuels. It would also decrease the dangers many people put themselves through in order to find the fuel. Also the article “what

The automobile industry is constantly being revolutionized through new technology resulting in a fuel concept for consumer vehicles. Although these new alternative fuels are a break-through for the automobile industry, where do they stand in comparison to our conventional vehicles? This paper will address this issue by asking: What are the environmental and economic benefits and disadvantages of alternative-fueled cars compared to conventional cars?

“If you pick any car to own and drive, what car would it be?” Everyone wants to drive fast, sports, and expensive cars such as: Bugatti, Ferrari, GTR, etc. These cars are great cars, but people want them because it is a want and a luxury, not worrying about anything but their own desires. Cars have quite a few corresponding events just to drive them. These could include things like buying gas or paying for maintenance. This is a huge problem for people of any age. They could be high schoolers using their job to pay for their car, or adults having to commute far to get to their job. Another huge problem that cars help fuel is the bad environmental effects that are created by the emissions than gasoline cars release. There are some solutions to some problems people may be having dealing with their traditional, gasoline cars. The biggest solution to this problem is to would be to change the fuel source of the car. They can be changed to fuel sources such as: Propane, Hydrogen, Electric, Biodiesel, or Ethanol. The only problem faced when changing to these other fuel sources is that they are not high in demand. The demand in alternative fuels needs to increase instead of focusing mainly on gasoline cars to help keep the environment safe. Alternative fuels are not in demand right now, so there are not many stations to fuel up on the alternative gases. The increase in demand of alternative fueled cars will help keep the environment healthier, as well as giving people the perks

There are more than one billion cars around the world up to date and this number is increasing rapidly because of the demand for them. Most of the cars in the world have big engines right now. Big engines are made of eight cylinder (V8), ten cylinder (V10), or twelve cylinder (V12 / W12). Those types of engines have been used for many years in the car industry. Most of the car manufacturers prefer to use those engines because their customers like them and thinking that more cylinder means more power. For many years, those car manufacturers have not realized one thing that big engines emission rates are actually really important for the environment

There are many different types of alternate fuels for cars at our disposal, such as Ethanol, Natural Gas, Electricity, and Hydrogen Fuels. We can use these fuels instead of normal gasoline fuels that pollute our air and contribute to destroying our environment. Many of these alternative fuels may be less convenient to use, because they are less accessible. However, if people decide to use these fuels then they can make our world a green friendly world. There this a ton of upside to using alternative fuels, according to Larry West’s article on the top eight alternative fuels, as they can help nations become more energy independent. In addition, there are several downsides or challenges associated with alternative fuels for cars, such as

Conventional vehicles burn fossil fuels and emit exhaust fumes to the atmosphere. Not only have gasoline vehicles depleted natural resources, they also have caused severe environmental pollutions, especially in some populous nations such as China and India. [1] CO2 is the main contributor of the greenhouse effect. 97% of greenhouse emission is carbon dioxide. And in turn, road transportation has become the largest sector in producing carbon dioxide. [2] Because of the decreasing natural resources and the increasing environmental pollution, scientists focus more on new technologies that can help reduce those consequences. However, even though scientists hope hybrid cars could substitute traditional cars in order to reduce

Throughout history, as well as present day, the usage of natural gas has played an immense role in our everyday life. However, over recent decades, the extraction and usage of natural gas has become a more frequent topic of debate. Even though extraction of natural gas and crude oil has been proven to boost the global economy, people still question weather these methods of extraction will ultimately destroy our planet. There is an abundance unconventional and conventional reservoirs of oil and gas under the surface, each with the potential to increase the production of both resources vastly. Advancements in engineering, such as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, have allowed us to take advantage of all aspects of these varying reservoirs. With this impending influx of resources, many regions will see an increase in production and consumption. Throughout this paper, we will discuss the current methods of extraction, the uses of natural gas both past and present, and the US export ban of crude oil. Finally, after reviewing the reasons behind the current low prices on energy, we can make projections for the future of natural gas.

The engine of today is largely dominated by the oil industry. Most of our energy consumption is contributed to transportation and movement of goods. This creates a high demand for fuel as the number of miles driven per person is projected to grow. Currently, 86% of vehicles run on fossil fuels, which create heavy amounts of carbon dioxide gas which puts heavy strain on our environment. It is up to large companies to research alternative methods of fuels and compare them to our most dominant fuel. At the moment, proposed alternative fuels are biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, and hydrogen fuel cells. If one of these proves to be a viable source, then we can move toward development of engines that accept these fuels and deviate from standard fossil fuel consumption.

The Industrial Revolution was the spearhead for several generations of heavy pollution. The engines that are being used to make work easier emit large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). The Earth 's atmosphere is designed to handle a fair amount of carbon dioxide, but in the past century people have produced much more than it can manage. Global warming has become a recurring topic in many news stories since the late 1990 's. With the spotlight on emission control vehicle manufacturers have started designing much more fuel efficient engines. Hybrid vehicles that use both an internal combustion engine and an electric power source have become highly popular amongst commuters. According to the Washington Post, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has required the U.S auto-fleet to average 54.5 mpg by the year 2025 (Eilperrin). This will put a lot of pressure on engineers to make an engine that has a high output and is efficient. It is vital that something is done about the vast amount of pollution that is plaguing the world. If we continue destroying the environment at our current rate, there is only a number of decades left in our future.