Alternative Fuels poll: The end of gasoline?
Saturday October 27, 2007
Christine and Scott Gable, About.com's Guides to Alternative Fuels, have posted a poll: How close are we to seeing gasoline displaced as our primary motor fuel? Less than five years? Ten? Twenty? Or is it never going to happen? Click here to vote in the poll; once you've voted you can check the current results here. -- Aaron Gold
It is possible that the next or ALTERNATIVE fuel of the future, might not be fuel at all. Such as longer lasting, more powerful, and self charging HYBRIDS. Maybe partially SOLAR POWERED, PNUMATIC POWERED. Who knows really, but I do think gasoline and even deisel power is on their way out.
It will take a while. Probably 1 or 2 generations for the mindset to change away from gasoline (20 to 30 years). I think that biodiesel looks like the most promising. The USA may gradually cut it’s oil dependence down with higher percentage usage of methanol. Hybrids will also help with using less fuel and may become a very common thing to use with most vehicles.
Battery technology is constantly improving but the recharge time will always be a problem for electric only cars.
Gas gone …. it is a long way in the future, if ever. I sudied fuel cell technology in the ’60’s but there is still a lot of work to do. Batteries are not there yet, too heavy, not enough run time, expensive to replace. Solar for cars, maybe to charge the heavy batteries. Nuclear, the uneducated public’s outcry will kill that! So, stand by for $5 gasoline and gasoline as the predominant fuel for many years/decades. Maybe it will force opening to more drilling. I am not convinced we have a shortage underground. And, I am convinced we can clean up emission more.
This will be a long process for any kind of replacement. It took many years to get the gasoline distribution system spread throughout the country. Not everyone can afford to just close up their tanks/stations and build new systems. There are issues with some of the other “promising” fuels like those made with corn (push cost of food WAY up as fuel uses up all the food sources). I’ve also read that some believe methanol is more harmful to the air long term than gas. So some things may be started without enough thought and we will all kill ourselves looking for a quick fix. There are also a lot of rich people out there heavily invested in classic and antique cars. What happens when they can’t find gas anymore? If anything replaces gas, it will have to be something that doesn’t need a distribution system such as gas stations. Then it also has to be cheap enough to afford. How many people earning $25K/year are going to trade in their 1985 Olds for a $40K green car (or be able to afford $10K batteries every 5 years)? There are lots of social problems that need serious consideration before any replacement can be found.
I agree with william d. I don’t see gasoline being replaced in my lifetime. I also do not believe we have even tapped all oil supplies. I see a pickup of more drilling and also believe BIG OIL will cash in by making us pay.I love GAS.
Most people have forgotten the “synfuel” debacle of the ’70s so they’re damned to repeat it. Millions were spent on producing alternative fuels then to no affect because petroleum-based fuels were just too cheap, even with Middle East gouging. Now we have a new era of synfuel, er, alternative fuels, which means what? Alcohol. And as noted above, the exhaust from alcohol-based fuels contains carcinogenics. Enough to cause probelms? Good question. Anyone want to volunteer Los Angeles to test it?
Alcohol also drives up the cost of food, which is an inconvenience to us here in America, but for poorer nations, it can be catastrophic. In fact, this is one thing that I agree with Fidel Castro on. But the early primary (caucus, actually) in Iowa guarantees that no U.S. politician, Republican or Democrat, will come out against it. Lose Iowa?Wanna lose the nomination?
Alcohol is wasteful of energy. Perhaps if we had nuclear power it would make some sense, but why should we use one energy source to produce another. That’s making alcohol not an energy source but a transmission system (similar to electricity, which has to be made from something else).
Alcohol uses a lot of water in its production. Fresh water WILL become a scarcer commodity in the future. Alcohol as a fuel will hasten that day.
Alcohol is a lousy fuel. My own experience (admittedly not enough trials for scientific validity) suggests that the decrease in efficiency makes it a wash costwise with real gasoline. And alcohol is subsidized.
So, what’s good about alcohol? Ya got me there.
And don’t start me up on hydrogen, which is NOT a fuel but an energy transfer system.
I like GM’s Volt system, “plug-in hybrids” with onboard rechargers that for most daily use will seldom be run. And drilling in ANWAR, that is, if you really want to affect energy independence…
yup, carbuzzard is right, alcohal shmalcohal. that isn’t a good thing to use daily, be it drinking or fueling. drinking kills the liver, and fueling sucks up water(also sends corn prices skyhigh[research it if u don't believe me]). also the hydrogen theory is probably correct, I have been looking into it and it’s very complicated.
the thing to do probably is to just stick with raising your mpg as high as possible.
Bjay, I think you’re right on that one. I’ve switched to a regular aspirated Mini and got 37mpg(mid grade) combined on my first 3000 miles and had a riot getting it. Now if that little 1.6 liter was a diesel, I probably wouldv’e got mid 40’s…so who needs a hybrid,gasahol,hydrogen…