Ethanol, hydrogen, solar, hydro and wind are some of the different types of alternative fuels.
FREMONT, CA: The news is full of serious discussions about climate change, "clean" or "renewable" energy, the environment, and the need to limit the burning of fossil fuels to avoid ecological and other disasters in the future decades. Despite this, the United States remains primarily an oil and gasoline-powered economy as the second decade of the twenty-first century comes to an end.
Every day, leading newspapers in the United States and worldwide debate alternative fuels' benefits and drawbacks on their editorial pages. Suppose the Earth is running out of coal, oil, and gas in the next years. In that case, it is essential to identify the front-runners for steering global society into a new, "alternative" energy economy.
Primary kinds of alternative fuels are listed below:
Biodiesel: These are renewable fuels derived from vegetable oils such as soybean or canola oil, animal fats, and even restaurant grease. As the name says, they are intended for use in diesel vehicles. Unfortunately, it is more expensive than regular diesel fuel and can be harmful to rubber engine parts. Biodiesel thickens significantly in cold temperatures and burns badly in those conditions.
Hydrogen: This promising but extremely volatile fuel has the benefit of being omnipresent, with the only waste product being water vapor. However, elemental hydrogen does not occur naturally and must be synthesized from H-containing molecules like methane. It is becoming increasingly used as a fuel source for fuel-cell vehicles.
Solar, hydro and wind: These energy sources all have the advantage of being naturally occurring, in constant supply, and non-polluting. However, they are all limited in their practical applications. For example, solar cells may produce varied amounts of power depending on conditions such as cloud cover. Wind speed is notoriously unpredictable, and hydropower can be wasteful and environmentally detrimental due to flooding.
Ethanol: This alcohol can be added to ordinary gasoline in concentrations ranging from 10 percent to 83 percent. By 2014, approximately a hundred types of "flex fuel" vehicles have entered the automotive industry. On the bright side, ethanol can be made rather than extracted from the ground or imported into the United States. On the other hand, ethanol has less energy per unit volume, resulting in lower gas mileage.
