Hydrogen, if a cheap electrical conversion can be found. CNG would be good, as it appears we have alot of it. Biodiesel in a supporting role, but not exclusively as we would have to give up eating to have biodiesel, only.
Ultimately, battery power that can go 1000 miles on a charge on a 4000 pound vehicle at speeds up to 80mph. That should be the next "Manhatten Project", or Kennedy's "putting a man on the moon in this decade" type of effort. I feel it can be done.
POLL: What fuel would you like to see cars/trucks run on?
- Thread starter oilpan49
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BioDiesel - Retail infrastructure and vehicles won't have to change a bit.
Propane - Minor change in retail, minor change in vehicle storeage and induction, but if engine design/controls changes were a change made, could get even better emissions and more power if the engine were designed to make use of the 100+ octane fuel (higher compression, better timing advance, etc).
Dave
One problem with batteries with 1000 mile range is that you have all the energy of a full tank of gas stored in a form that can be released instantly if the plates of the battery suddenly come into contact with one another, ie., a BOMB. The same is true for ultracapacitors.
An aluminium-air battery might be safe, since the air has to come from the outside, and is not stored right inside the cell. Fuel cells are also good, since the two input chemical streams are kept separate.
Methanol. You can run both compression and spark igintion IC engines on it. Octane rating is higher than gasoline so that compression ratios can go way up. No new, read expensive, engine technology is required.
While your question excluded cost, availability, etc, methanol is made from methane, a plentiful gas, both in the ground and from "bio" sources.
garbage...like Mr. Fusion ![[Cheers!]](/forums/graemlins/cheers.gif)
Natural gas. Compressed at home. No more filling stations.
Ditto methane.
Moonshine, cuz round theez heer parts, it aint hard to come by. ![[Wink]](images/icons/wink.gif)
Compressed and liquified gasses. I have seen good recomendations. Methane, methanol, LNG, LPG, CNG. I am partial to LNG for it's energy potential. Methanol would be interesting. as well although I question the resources to come up with 9.5 million gallons a day to meet the equivelent demand today in gasoline.
Perhaps the reality will be a blend of bio fuels and petroleum fuels to meet the volume needed. until the infrastructure and production of alternatives is in place.
Obviously the petrolueum industry has a corner on the corner market. So I don't think any widespread infrastructure will be implemented without that industry.
Nuclear fusion.... not the fission process currently used in our nuclear reactors.
Theoretically....... input sea water and the output would be electricity and water. Suspended solids within the water would need to be disposed of.... perhaps street sweepers constantly running around.
Theoretically, if perfected, as envisioned at the Lawrence Livermore Lab..... 6 fusion plants could provide electric power to all of Africa and the fresh water by-product could convert all of the Sahara Desert into an irrigated garden. Need some mulch, of course.
Anyway....... if we could build mini fusion reactors to place into a car/truck... whoopie!!!!!
At the least, perfect the big ones and place charging stations all over the place for electric cars.
Fill 'em with wishful thinking. It's more effective than many of the pie in the sky wet dreams that have been proposed in the last couple of years.
Fuels for transport need to be liquid (propane is liquid).
Fast filling, and much higher energy density than the compressed gasses.
Slow fill times (electric, hydrogen and methane) won't work for long distances that trucks and cars need to be capable of.
For now...
I vote E85.
We would need turbo or high compression engines to make use of it's high "octaine".
Older cars don't like it.
CNG is the cleanest fuel for IC engines.
I'd like to see the IC go away and be replaced by solar powered cars. Probably 100 years away though.
Coal costs roughly 1/10th as much as diesel fuel per heat energy unit. Maybe a diesel engine could be supplemented with a coal gasifier.
WATER
i was watching the discovery channel one day and they were talking about some sort of crazy frozen methane ice in the bermuda triangle. although frozen, it readily burns and is very abundant.
i suppose it would be interesting if ships could be outfitted some sort of vacuum scooper upper thing which could collect this flammable ice and let it melt in the intake manifold of the engine, adding a cooling effect to the charge and also providing some of the fuel for ignition.
I wish car automakers would join hands and make the cleanest diesel yet and run it on B20 for starters and B100 in the future.
How about a turbine hybrid? Keep it cranking as long as the battery will take juice.
I'd like to see turbine engines in cars and light trucks. Chrysler did it in the '60s and although it was a flop, the car did run nice, and for the technology of its day delivered halfway decent fuel economy. The best part of a turbine is the fact that it's impervious to octane or cetane ratings...It'll run on any flammable liquid from diesel to perfume and anything in between.
Another interesting alternative fuel is aquanol. 70% ethanol, 30% water. You need special ignition systems to fire it, but it has been done.
More info here:
http://www.smartplugs.com/indexi.html
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