Does Petrol (Gasoline)Have a Place in the 21st Century?

2008-05-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

The continuiny so called 'war on terror' has push oil prices to a 20 year high of over $50 a barrel. What does this mean for the adverage driver? Obviously the cost is passed onto the consumer with higher petrol costs. Every so often we hear of the latest 'green' alternative to petrol, but what is actully out there that can be bought now?

Solar Powered Car

Many of you will have seen the solar powered cars racing across the Australian bush year after year, they never look that comfortable and have always remined me of the ill fated Sinclair C5. Simon Robertson has created a viable alternative from his Peugeot 106. He has fitted it with a kerb side car charger and now he even generates his own electricity. His electricity is generated from photovolatic panels on the roof of his house in Lambeth, London UK. In a recent Positive News article he stated, 'I am trying to be an eco-warrior without having to change my lifestyle too much.' At times Simon generates too much electricity and sells it back to Ecotricity through their renewable awards scheme.

Compressed Air Car

The compressed air car will be on offer in Paris by June 2005 at a cost of around $10 000 for a basic vehicle. The air car is powered by an electric pump that compresses the air into a tank, the air in turn pumps some pistons. The cars top speed is 70 mph (115 kph) and it can travel up to 50 miles (80 k) on a full 'tank'.(supposedly further at lower speeeds). The pump that is used to power the car simply plugs into a normal household socket and takes four hours for a full charge. As fro the cost of a full charge, apparently only $2.50 at French electricity prices. The only emmision to come out of the exhaust is cold air.

There are downsides to this car, most notebly is the fact that there is only one dealership and thats in France. So if repairs were needed it could be quite costly to get parts.

Also, converting electricity to compressed is thought to be inefficient. Karsten Krause of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, a green lobby group based in Brussels, states that the car consumes more energy from the power plant than it deliver on the road. He says "You may not have any pollution from the car itself, but you're just transferring the environmental burden to another place."

Maybe any prospective buyers should have a chat with Simon Robertson.

Alcohol Fuel and Brazil

Brazil rules the roost when it comes to alternative transport, at one time over 90% of their cars were alcohol propelled. Brazil has known about using alchol to propel their cars since the 1920's and due to the petrol shortage during World War 2 many cars ran on 75% alchol 25% ether mix.

The Brazilain govenment launched the National Alcohol Program, the PROALCOHOL (Proálcool) in 1975 in the midst of world petrol prices increases. The production of sugar cane was stepped up to cater for this growth market. Although good news for the environment this was not so much good news for the population of Brazil. Many were forced out of the countryside due to this expansion and now live in slums on the outskirts of Brazils cities.

The Proalchol programe ending in the early 90's and now, although alchol fueled cars are still manufactured and driven in Brazil, the doninant fuel is again petrolium.(gasoline)

The future looks greener in Brazil as they are now a forerunner in the flex-fuel division of the car market. 20% of Brazilian cars are fitted with an engine that can run on alchol or petrol.(gasoline) They hope to start exporting these cars around the world.

Bio diesel and Cooking Oil

I have a friend, who shall remain nameless for legal reasons, who runs his vechicle on vegetable oil. He says that he did not convert his engine and he just pours the oil straight into his diesel tank. The journey forever website suggest that he could be damaging his engine by doing this, as he will 'coke up the engine and injectors'. They have a wealth of information on the subject on their website. The UK govenment do not take too kindly to people like my friend and have placed a tax on vegetable oil fuel making it almost as expensive as petrol this tax is 22p per litre. YOu have to produce a letter and show the police that you have declared it and paid it, but I would not have thought that the police will be that bothered really. Are they going to take a note of your milage and work out your fuel consumption so that they know down to the last penny if you have paid enough tax? If you use chip fat or other used oil that you get for free you could run an environmentaly friendly car for 22p per litre (the tax). Or as, strangly enough you do not have to pay tax on a stationary engine, you could power a generator and charge up an electric car!

Many people make their own bio-diesel using a 30% kerosene and 70% vegetable oil mix and some use 50/50 mixes. As there is no engine conversion needed, this option seems to be one of the most feasable that I have featured so far. It might not be the most environmentaly freindly of the alternatives but "for every gallon of vegetable oil you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, and that much less carbon in the atmosphere."

Bio-diesel has already proved itself to be a viable alternative, for instance, my local council, Bath & North East Somerset, has a fleet of 120 vehicles running on the stuff. It saves them 20p per litre (as aposed to using diesel) which they put back into the manufacture of it.

Hydrogen Powered Cars

When many think of cars running on alternative fuels they think one thing, it's going to be slow. BMW have smashed this popular misconception with a car that can reach speeds of 185 mph (300 kph). They are even considering regestering it for next years racing curcit. The H2R differs from most other hydrogen powered cars that run on a fuel cell, it is powered by a combustion engine and emits only steam.

Recently one of the opposition parties in the UK, the Liberal Democrats, announced that they were going to be promoting Hydrogen fuel cells as the fuel of the future. Fuel cells use hydrogen or hydrogen rich fuels to generate electricity.

Liftsharing

Well obviously not essentialy an alternative fuel, but if everone did share lifts a bot more then there would be less cars on the road. Do you drive into work every morning and pass one of your neighbours who works down the road? Well why not share a car, ensure that they are nice people first. You could try freewheelers or liftshare.