What is the best Alternative Fuel?
what do you think is the best alternative fuel? I’ve been looking into air cars and they look promising check out www.converttoair.com the have videos that talk about the air cars,
they look like the best solution atleast for the up coming years before hydrogen is ready, because air cars are ready to be produced and have alot of positive aspects to them with few down falls
whats your opinion?
Electric, no doubt about it. It’s the most efficient alternative, the technology is advancing rapidly, and the infrastructure (power grid) is already in place.
http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/electric-vehicles
Second most promising is biodiesel from algae oil. It has the potential to produce huge amounts of carbon negative fuel.
http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/algae-biofuel
Air cars are just less efficient electric cars. Instead of storing the electrical energy in a battery and using it to directly power a 90% efficient electric motor, you’re using the electrical energy to power an air compressor to store the compressed air in the car, which then drives a piston. When you do a mechanical process like driving a piston, you also lose energy as heat to friction. It’s just not as good as an electric car.
Hydrogen cars are similar to air cars – just inherently less efficient than electric cars, and with major roadblocks in the way.
http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/hydrogen-cars
There really isn’t any — and hydrogen will never be "ready": there is no natural source of the stuff, and it must be made (typically from natural gas) at vast cost in energy. It is better to use natural gas itself as a fuel — as many vehicles already do.
I wouldn’t say that any 1 fuel is the best.
The best car in my opinion would have solar panels on the roof combined with compressed air. It also would have to be aerodynamic, lightweight and could use breaks to recharge the battery like the Toyota Camry.
We do not have a lot of deployable electric power to do the compressing. We have some that is made by burning coal, is that how you envision using it?
If we have wind turbines providing the compressed air, sure, why not. But there are new ceramic ‘batteries’ capable of storing the electrical power about as well.
The air car is not an alternative fuel, just a way to distribute energy, and not a really effective way.
Air car technology could be used as an alternative to electric in hybrids, where we use the air compressor to provide braking power, but its torque curve is all wrong.
Air cars should be considered if you do not have to draw electrical power from a grid that uses coal or natural gas for extra power, and which is not able to sell its surplus power to a grid that does use coal.
But EESU would be a better strategy.
I think the best alternative fuel is the one produced by bacteria and algae… It is still not commercialized but there has been a lot of research going on. If you want to know more about this fuel check this article it is quite interesting:
http://biotechtouch.blogspot.com/search/label/biofuels
Biofuel, however compressed air cars are interesting.
methane gas? they use it here in Italy
cheese and crackers
The best alternative fuel: a vegetable-powered bicycle. (a hybrid bicycle that can run on meat and vegetables isn’t too bad, either).
Air, like hydrogen, isn’t a power source – it’s a way of storing energy. They both are backed by unclean power sources, namely, diesel or coal power plants, so unless you compress the air or create the hydrogen using a greenewable power source, you’re still creating roughly the same amount of pollution you create with gasoline, possibly a small amount less. One thing I can tell you, though, is that small difference doesn’t make up for the majorly bad environmentally impact of purchasing a brand new vehicle. Making a car takes an obscene amount of energy and water … unless you’re switching from a Hummer to a Chevy Volt, it’s probably not worth it.
Or you could just do what over 90% of the world population does: not drive.
I prefer natural gas (methane). My 2 cars run on it already and it’s very cheap and a lot cleaner for the environment. The technology isn’t even new – my cars were made by Ford in 1999 and 2000. They’re great! It also is right here in the USA, so we don’t have to import it from hostile countries. Natural gas gets my vote.