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Alternative Fuels: What Is There Besides Gasoline?

This document discusses various alternative fuels to gasoline including ethanol, natural gas, propane, hydrogen, biodiesel, electricity, and methanol. It outlines the production processes and uses of each fuel. The advantages and disadvantages of alternative fuels are generally lower emissions but higher costs compared to gasoline. Alternative fuels could lessen dependence on petroleum if production and infrastructure are improved.

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Vimal Cj
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165 views21 pages

Alternative Fuels: What Is There Besides Gasoline?

This document discusses various alternative fuels to gasoline including ethanol, natural gas, propane, hydrogen, biodiesel, electricity, and methanol. It outlines the production processes and uses of each fuel. The advantages and disadvantages of alternative fuels are generally lower emissions but higher costs compared to gasoline. Alternative fuels could lessen dependence on petroleum if production and infrastructure are improved.

Uploaded by

Vimal Cj
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ALTERNATIVE FUELS

what is there besides gasoline?


Why Alternative Fuels?
• As the cost of conventional fuels goes up, the interest in
other fuel sources increase
• In some cases, alternative fuels are more environmentally
friendly
• Some alternative fuels are more energy efficient
Types of Alternative Fuels
• Ethanol
• Natural gas
• Propane
• Hydrogen
• Biodiesel
• Electricity
• Methanol
Ethanol
• It is an alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by
fermenting and distilling starch crops or cellulose that have
been converted into simple sugars

• Ethanol is most commonly used to


increase octane and improve the
emissions quality of gasoline.

• Ethanol can be blended with


gasoline to create E85, a blend of
85% ethanol and 15% gasoline,
a more efficient fuel.
Ethanol
• A clean-burning fuel

• More horsepower than gasoline

• Higher octane rating (over 100)

• Burns cooler than gasoline

• High production rate ,


for example one acre of
corn can produce 300 gal.
of ethanol per growing
season.
Advantages
•Renewable
•Lowers carbon monoxide emissions
• Abundant
•Environmental friendly

Disadvantages
•Emission of pollutants
•Consumption of land
•Toxic byproducts produced during ethanol production
Natural Gas
• Natural gas is produced either from gas wells or in
conjunction with crude oil production and it contains
methane and other gases.

• Because of the gaseous nature of this fuel, it must be stored


onboard a vehicle in either
a compressed gaseous
state or in a liquefied state.

• Its being used in many


fields as fuels.
Advantages
• Lower emissions

•Lower smog producing gases (60-90% Light-Duty use,


90% in Mid to Heavy-duty use)

• Can be used to make hydrogen to power the future fuel


cell technology

Disadvantages
• More costly

•High possibility of explosion

•Detection of gas leaks


difficult
Propane
• Popular alternative fuel choice for vehicles because there is
already an infrastructure of pipelines, processing facilities,
storage for its efficient distribution.

• Produced as a by-product of natural gas processing and


crude oil refining.

• Propane vehicles can produce fewer ozone-forming


emissions than vehicles powered by reformulated gasoline

 Propane usage increased effectively over the last few years.

 Provides cost effective solution to gasoline.


Advantages
• Lower emmission

• In the quantities needed it costs less than gasoline

• Very accessible compared to other alternative fuels.

Disadvantages

•More prone to
explosion

•Expensive
Hydrogen
 Hydrogen mixed with natural gas can be used in internal
combustion engine and it is the perfect fuel to run fuel cells
cause pure hydrogen reacts only with oxygen releasing
water thus no emissions.

• Hydrogen and oxygen from


air fed into a proton exchange
membrane fuel cell produce
enough electricity to power an
electric automobile, without
producing harmful emissions.
The only byproduct of a
hydrogen fuel cell is water.
Advantages

•Abundant

•No carbon
emmission

•Byproduct is
water

Disadvantages

•Difficult to produce

•Should be highly precautious


Biodiesel
• Biodiesel is renewable fuel that can be manufactured from
vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases.

• Reduces serious air


pollutants such as
particulates, carbon-
monoxide, hydrocarbons,
and air toxics.
How can Biodiesel help the environment?
• In a blended state with traditional fuel it can lower
emissions such as a 20% blend lowers CO2 emissions by 15%

• 100% Biodiesel can lower CO2 emissions by 75%

• Biodiesel produces fewer particulate matter, carbon


monoxide, and sulfur dioxide emissions

• It’s safe to store, handle, and transport.


 Lower emissions
Advantages

 Renewable
 Little/no engine modification
 Can be blended with traditional fuel
 Biodegradable
 Infrastructure exists

Disadvantages
 Consumption of more food resources for its production
Electricity
Electricity can be used as a transportation fuel to power
battery electric and fuel cell vehicles. When used to power
electric vehicles, electricity is stored in an energy storage
device such as a battery.

EV batteries have a limited storage capacity and their


electricity must be replenished by plugging the vehicle into
an electrical source.
Advantages
• Electric Vehicles require no warm-up

• No sound pollution

• Excellent performance.

• Cheap Refueling

• Lower maintenance costs

Disadvantages

• Pure electric cars still have limited range, typically no more than 100 to
120 miles.
Methanol
• Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, can be used as an
alternative fuel in flexible fuel vehicles that run on M85

• Methanol can easily be made into hydrogen for hydrogen


fuel cell vehicles in the future.

• Methane also can be produced by processing biomass such


as grass clippings, sawdust and other cellulose sources.
Advantages
•lower emissions

•higher performance

•lower risk of flammability than gasoline

Disadvantages

•extremely corrosive

•requiring special materials for delivery and storage.

•fuel economy is worse than ethanol's.

•high amount of formaldehyde in emissions.


CONCLUSION
• Alternative fuels generally lower emissions making them
appealing for environmental concerns. Many of these fuels
are renewable and would lessen the need for petroleum
products. A lot of these fuels are going to be used with the
developing fuel cell technology. With making the public
aware of these alternatives it could hasten the development
of these fuels and the technologies to run them.
References
www.wikipedia.org
 Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2005-2006, Thomson Gale
^ Benz Patent
^ American Heritage Dictionary, via Answers.comOnline
Etymology Dictionary
And some other sites

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