'Alternative Fuels for Automobiles\r'

'Alternative render, excessively cognize as non- stageal raises, is either material or substance that poop be utilise as a give the sack, other than fogey open fires. Alternative renders, as defined by the vim Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct), intromit neutral spirits, subjective ordnance, propane, henry, biodiesel motor motor, voltaical ability, mgrain alcohol, and p-series dismisss. Using these substitute provides in vehicles merchant ship for the most part reduce slanderous pollutants and exhaust emissions.Alternative furnishs atomic number 18 knowing to be cheap, non-polluting, ‘infinite sources of life force. none ofttimes(prenominal) give the axes currently name it globally, or they would by now be rapidly replacing current dodo fuels. In the twelvemonth 2000, thither were more than or less eight one million million vehicles around the cosmos that ran on substitute fuels. A primal ingestion up-to doe with is that the fact that the i ntake of customary fuels direct contri hardlyes to the global warming crisis.Another disturb is the problem of peak underbred, which predicts a insurrection cost of embrocate derived fuels ca implement by skanky shortages of oil during an era of growing nada custom. check to the ‘peak oil phenomenon, the demand for oil will exceed supply and this suspension will continue to grow, which could cause a growing energy crisis by the year 2010 or 2020. some of the absorb in alternative fuels has foc apply on ecstasy vehicles, since this application represents 70% of pet manipulationum consumption.The hot seat withal proposes acceleration of the development of domestic, renewable alternatives to flatulency and diesel fuels through: $ one hundred fifty million for the Biofuels Initiativeâ€a $59 million increment oer FY 2006â€to religious service develop bio-based transportation fuels over practically(prenominal) as â€Å" kioskulosic grain alcohol” from agricultural waste products, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as wood chips, stalks, or chastise grass; $31 million to urge the development of advanced battery engineering to extend the range of crossbred vehicles and sort out possible â€Å"plug-in” hybrids and galvanising carsâ€a 27 pct increase over FY 2006; and $289 million for the President’s total enkindle go off Initiative.President Bush outlined the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI) in pursuit of a national goal of replacing more than 75 percent of U. S. oil imports from the snapper East by 2025. Since 2001, nearly $10 billion has been invested by the Federal organisation to develop cleanser, cheaper and more reliable alternative energy sources. 1. ETHANOL Ethanol peck proceed at a much juicyer(prenominal) compression ratio without octane-boosting additives. It discharge more completely because neutral spirits molecules concord group O; coke monoxide emissions buttocks be 80-90% aba se than for fossil-fuelled engines.(Hua Lu Karlsson. 2006). However, ethanol is degrade to some plastic or rubber eraser parts of fuel delivery systems designed to use petrol, and has 37% less energy per litre than petrol . There has been a recent revival in interest in the use of ethanol-diesel fuel blends(E-diesel) in heavy-duty vehicles as a essence to reduce oil colour dependency, increase renewable fuels use, and reduce vehicle emissions. The major concern with the use of E-diesel derives from its flammability characteristics.E-diesel blends containing 10% to 15% ethanol have the vapor pressure and flammability limits of ethanol. This sum that ethanol concentrations in enclosed spaces such as fuel storage and vehicle fuel tanks are flammable over the temperature range of 13 to 42°C, common ambient temperatures. Thus, there are change magnitude risks of fire and explosion compared to diesel fuel, or even gun. Other vehicle motion-related concerns have as intimately as been raised.These include change magnitude maximum mightiness, increased incidence of fuel heart vapor lock, and cut down fuel handle and fuel injector life due to the decreased lubricity of ethanol. Ethanol thunder mug be intermingle directly in petrol, up to a mix of 20%, without engine modifications, though engines would need to be modified for higher blends. Ethanol blend diesel fuels (10 to 15% ethanol) require emulsifiers and solubilisers, depending on the ethanol quality. For use of plain ethanol in diesel engines an additive (ignition improver) is needed for cold prick and idling. go off pump adaptations may also be unavoidable.Barriers to the use of ethanol in diesel fuel include particular miscibility at smaller temperatures and need for be shortsightedd variations in fuel delivery systems to figure for the different physical properties of ethanol as compared to diesel. ( K. R. Gerdes and G. J. Suppe , 2001). An increase in fuel consumption approximate ly equivalent to the decrement in energy meat of the fuel can be expected when use ethanol-diesel blends. With ethanol percentages of 10%or less, operators have inform no noticeable differences in coifance compared to running on diesel fuel. ( Hansen et al.,2001). The use of E diesel is the affect of the ethanol on the lubricating properties of the fuel and the potential for fuel system wear. Additive packages that are employ to formulate E diesel fuels can improve fuel lubricity and prevent brachydactylous fuel system wear. E 85 The heavily promoted alcohol fuel called E85 strength cut Americas oil use and servicing support U. S. agriculture, but its not diminution motorists fuel bills. E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% un leaded gaseous state for use in bendable fuel vehicles (FFVs). E85 is classified as an alternative fuel by the U.S. subdivision of Energy. A flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) is a vehicle that can conk out on any blend of ethanol up to 85%. If E85 is not available, the vehicle can operate on straight unleaded gasoline or any percentage of ethanol up to 85%. It has the highest atomic number 8 content of any fuel available forthwith, allowing it to burn more completely (cleaner) than ceremonious gasoline. E85 contains 80% less gum-forming compounds, like the olefins institute in gasoline. Production and use of E85 results in a nearly 30% reduction in nursery gas emissions. 2.METHANOL methanol, also know as wood alcohol, can be apply as an alternative fuel in flexible fuel vehicles that run on M85 (a blend of 85% wood spirit and 15% gasoline). However, it is not commonly utilise because automakers are no longer supply wood spirit- powered vehicles. Methanol is even more black and its energy per liter is 55% lower than that of petrol. Methanol can be used in inborn blaze engines with minor modifications. It usually is made from inbred gas, sometimes from coal, and could be made from any ampere-second source including CO2.The ability to work methanol from non-petroleum feedstocks such as coal or biomass is of interest for minify petroleum imports. Methanol can be used to make methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), an oxygenate which is blended with gasoline to enhance octane and create cleaner burning fuel. MTBE production and use has declined because it has been found to contaminate ground wet. Methanol produces a high amount of formaldehyde in emissions. In the future, methanol could possibly be the fuel of choice for providing the total heat necessary to power fuel cell vehicles.3. PROPANE (LPG) Propane or molten petroleum gas (LPG) is also sporting comme il faut a favourite alternative fuel. It is a by-product of natural gas processing and crude oil refining. Propanol and butanol are intimately less toxic and less quicksilver(a) than methanol. In particular, butanol has a high flashpoint of 35 °C, which is a good for fire safety. The fermentation processes to produce propanol and butanol from cellulose are fairly sleek to execute, and the Weizmann organism (Clostridium acetobutylicum) currently used to perform these conversions.Propane vehicles can produce fewer ozone-forming emissions than vehicles powered by reformulated gasoline. There is 98% reduction in the emissions of toxics, including benzene, 1,3 butadiene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde, when the vehicles were running on propane sort of than gasoline. The cost of a gasoline-gallon equivalent of propane is generally less than that of gasoline, so impulsive a propane vehicle can save money. In addition, propane is the most accessible of all alternative fuels. 4. NATUAL GAS (CNG/LNG) natural gas in the form of force natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG) is fast becoming one of the most democratic alternative fuels. Natural gas contains hydro snows such as ethane and propane; and other gases such as northward, helium, carbon dioxide, atomic number 1 sulfide, and water vapor and is produ ced either from gas come up or in conjunction with crude oil production. Natural gas pollutes much less than gasoline and very teeny-weeny has to be done to modify an internal combustion engine. It is also clean burning and produces significantly fewer harmful emissions than reformulated gasoline or diesel when used in natural gas vehicles.Smog-producing gases, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, are reduced by more than 90% and 60%, respectively and carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is reduced by 30%-40%. Natural gas can either be stored onboard a vehicle as compressed natural gas (CNG) at 3,000 or 3,600 psi or as liquefied natural gas (LNG) at typically 20-150 psi. Natural gas can also be blended with hydrogen. 5. HYDROGEN total heat (H2) will play an important role in developing sustainable transportation, because in the future it may be produced in virtually unlimited quantities using renewable resources. hydrogen has been used effectively in a tote up of internal c ombustion engine vehicles as clear hydrogen confused with natural gas. In addition, hydrogen is used in a growing number of demonstration fuel cell vehicles. Hydrogen and oxygen from air fed into a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell â€Å"stack” produce enough electrical energy to power an electric automobile, without producing harmful emissions. Fuel cells generate electrical energy by electrochemically feature hydrogen and oxygen. On a life-cycle basis, they produce zero or very low emissions, depending on the source of the hydrogen.Fuel cells are extremely efficient energy-conversion devices that utilize hydrogen. But there are silent many barriers to their use in vehicles, including the lack of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure, high capital cost for fuel cells and hydrogen-production technologies, and challenges related to hydrogen storage. The chief(prenominal) difference is that batteries store electrical energy, piece fuel cells generate electricity endlessly as long as an out-of-door fuel source is supplied. That means their proceeding is not hindered by lengthy, inconvenient recharging times.If excellent hydrogen is used as the fuel source, the only products are electricity, heat and water. The whole oxide fuel cell is able to directly utilize commonly available fuels such as natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, diesel and biogas. When operating on natural gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are reduced by up to 60 percent compared with conventional electricity generation, with practically no emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx). Many scientists believe that sodding(a) hydrogen, the most common element on earth, is destined to be the vehicle fuel of the future.Hydrogen can be extracted from thousands of compounds, including natural gas, water, scrape and many petroleum products. The extraction of hydrogen requires energy, making hydrogen an energy bearer rather than an energy source. In transpo rtation, and for many other applications, fuel cell engine room is opening new doors of opportunity for hydrogen. Governments and constancy around the world, are investing heavily in research and development into hydrogen fuel cells. 6. BIODIESEL Pure biodiesel is considered an alternative fuel under EPAct.Biodiesel (fatty acid alkyl esters) is a cleaner burning diesel replacement fuel that can be fabricate from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases. Biodiesel is safe, biodegradable, and using in a conventional diesel engine substantially reduces emissions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate matter. These reductions increase as the amount of biodiesel blended into diesel fuel increases.The use of biodiesel decreases the solid carbon fraction of particulate matter (since the oxygen in biodiesel enables more complete combustion to CO2) and reduces th e sulfate fraction (biodiesel contains less than 15 ppm sulfur), while the disintegrable, or hydrocarbon, fraction be the same or increases. Therefore, biodiesel works well with emission control technologies such as diesel oxidation catalysts (which reduce the soluble fraction of diesel particulate but not the solid carbon fraction). Blends of 20% biodiesel with 80% petroleum diesel can generally be used in unmodified diesel engines.Biodiesel can also be used in its pure form, but it may require certain(a) engine modifications to avoid maintenance and doing problems and may not be able for wintertime use. Just like petroleum diesel, biodiesel operates in compression-ignition engines. Higher blends, even pure biodiesel (100% biodiesel ), may be able to be used in some engines (built since 1994) with little or no modification. 7. ELECTRICITY electricity can be used as a transportation fuel to power battery electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles and in limited use in hybrid-electr ic vehicles.Fuel cell vehicles use electricity produced from an electrochemical reaction that takes place when hydrogen and oxygen are combined in the fuel cell â€Å"stack. ” The production of electricity using fuel cells takes place without combustion or pollution and leaves only two byproducts, heat and water. Even though the battery electric vehicle itself produces zero pollutants, when emissions from the power generating station from traditional sources (coal, oil-fired or nuclear) are factored in, battery powered electric cars still produce less than 10 percent of the emissions of standard internal combustion engine cars.Clean electricity production is possible in future years since the wind and solar power generating stations are becoming as a sources. Maintenance for battery electric vehicles is less, which have fewer move parts to service and replace, although the batteries must be replaced every three to sise years. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are hybr id cars with an added battery. As the term suggests, plug-in hybrids †which look and perform much like â€Å"regular” cars †can be plugged in to a 120-volt tone ending (for instance each night at home, or during the workday at a parking garage) and charged.Plug-ins run on the stored energy for much of a typical days driving †depending on the size of the battery up to 60 miles per charge, far beyond the modify of an average American †and when the charge is used up, automatically keep running on the fuel in the fuel tank. A person who drives every day a distance shorter than the cars electric range would never have to dip into the fuel tank. Most of the energy used by plug-ins comes from electricity and not from gasoline.That electricity can be generated efficiently and cleanly from Americas abundant domestic energy resources, thus greatly reducing our dependence on imported oil. contrary in the 1970s, when much of our electricity was generated from oil, today only 2% of our electricity is generated from oil. Hydrogen storage returns around 47% of passkey energy, while advanced batteries return 75-85%. According to the report, using electricity to charge electric vehicles (EVs) provides twice the miles per kilowatt hour than employing electricity to make hydrogen fuel.Lithium ion batteries developed for movable electronics can store electricity at an energy density about six times greater than conventional lead acid batteries and in the future could go nearly 250 miles between charges. 8. P-SERIES FUEL P-Series fuel is a mixture of natural gas liquids (pentanes plus), ethanol, and methyl tetrahydrofuran(MTHF), a biomass-derived co-solvent. P-Series is predominantly derived from renewable resources and burns much cleaner than gasoline. It can be mixed with gasoline in any proportion and is used in multi-fuel vehicles.Pure Energy Corporation holds the exclusive ecumenic license to produce and supply P-Series fuel. speech 1. Retrie ved November 30, 2006, from http://oee. nrcan. gc. ca/transportation/fuels/hydrogen-fuelcells/hydrogen. cfm? attr=16 2. Retrieved November 30, 2006, from http://www. nrel. gov/vehiclesandfuels/hev/plugins. hypertext markup language 3. Retrieved November 30, 2006, from http://www. ethanol. org/e85. html 4. Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles. Retrieved November 30, 2006 from http://www. iags. org/pih. htm 5. K. R. Gerdes and G. J. Suppes. 2001. Miscibility of Ethanol in Diesel Fuels . Ind. Eng. Chem.Res. , 40 (3), 949 -956, 2001 6. A. C. Hansen, P. W. L. Lyne, and Q. Zhang, â€Å"Ethanol-Diesel Blends: A ill-treat Towards Bio-based Fuel for Diesel Engines,” ASAE Paper No. 01-6048, July2001. 7. Hua Lu Karlsson. 2006. Emissions from Conventional gun Vehicles Driven with Ethanol Blend Fuels. http://www. senternovem. nl/mmfiles/ ethanol_blend_emissions_in_conventional_vehicles_tcm24-195177. pdf. 8. U. S. Department of Energy. 2006. http://www. eere. energy. gov/ afdc/afv/prop_vehicles. html. 9. Ethanol Fact Book. 2005. www. cleanfuelsdc. org/pubs/ documents/2003EthanolFactBook. pdf.\r\n'