The real answer is alternative fuels that pollute less and have a lower cost. One alternative fuel option is biodiesel. Any diesel vehicle will run on it, it produces almost no pollution, and if you shop around, it costs a little bit less than unleaded. The catch is that a diesel engine adds about $5000 to the cost of your vehicle, and there's a pretty limited selection and it's mostly large pickups. The only diesel SUVs are the tiny Jeep Liberty and the enormous, inefficient and overpriced Hummer. For most people the real alternative fuel option is a vehicle that will run on ethanol, or at least on E85 (85%) ethanol.
There are lots of 'flex-fuel' vehicles which will run on E85, likely including the car you already own, but people aren't very aware of their existence. The real catch with E85 as an alternative fuel is that until recently there was nowhere between the Rockies and the Mississippi where you could buy E85. Even most of the states that grow the corn it's made from had virtually no retail outlets for it.
Like biodiesel, which is becoming more available, it's getting easier to find ethanol based fuel as well. We're on the cusp of an alternative fuel breakthrough for these two fuels, which will run in vehicles that are already on the market and require no modifications. One of the main reasons for this is President Bush's energy initiative, which includes substantial tax credits for production of both ethanol and biodiesel and also changed the national fuel standards to replace toxic MTBE which was added at 15% to all petroleum fuel with pure ethanol.
Starting about a month ago, all of the gas you buy is E15, which will run in any gas vehicle and reduces a lot of harmful emissions. The increase in ethanol production to meet the new requirements also means that higher mixes of ethanol like E85 are going to be more and more widely available for those who want to use them.
E85 does have a somewhat negative impact on gas mileage, but it also reduces emissions by about 40%. A modern engine produces very little pollution to start with, and if you run it on E85, it produces almost none. Biodiesel is still probably slightly better for fuel economy and low emissions, but it's a close race. The really good news with E85 is that because of the tax break and relatively low production costs of ethanol it's likely to be priced at least 30 cents a gallon less than unleaded in the same market, a price break which biodiesel won't be able to match until production increases substantially, and a market force which may lead to an explosion of consumer interest in E85.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lumpy
Are there any cars that can run on 100 percent ethanol right off the assembly line?
2 - Mr. Real Estate
I'm seriously considering buying the new Camry Hybrid. Ethanol and hybrids are definitely the way to go.
3 - Dave Nalle
If you want an Ethanol Hybrid hold out a bit longer for the Saab which is going to run on E100 with a hybrid engine. It sounds phenomenal.
And as for cars that can currently run on E100, I'd recommend a Model T Ford if you can find one that hasn't been converted for petroleum. But seriously, it may be possible to run FlexFuel vehicles on up to E95 and the manufacturers just aren't admitting it. But don't take my word for it and try it. Do some research. There are message bases with discussions from people who've done this sort of experimenting.
Dave
4 - Bliffle
"And as for cars that can currently run on E100, I'd recommend a Model T Ford if you can find one that hasn't been converted for petroleum."
IIRC, all early Fords were designed to run either alcohol or petrol: a lever on the carb switched between the two. Alcohol was used for most early cars because it was cheap and easily available in most communities without shipping. The "octane" rating is based on alcohol as octane 100. The switch to petrol occured because it was cheaper, in spite of the greater hazard of fires and explosions.
Back in the 60s sports car racers of my acquaintance lobbied to get the SCCA to switch to alcohol for closed course 'modified' race cars to reduce the danger of being burned badly in a crash. I believe that the Indy 500 is run on alcohol (tho NASCAR is still gasoline), in spite of my local newspaper reporting once that a car powered by alcohol couldn't go over 60 MPH.
5 - RJ Elliott
"Are there any cars that can run on 100 percent ethanol right off the assembly line?"
I can't answer that for certain, but my tentative guess is no. The reason they call it E85 is that it's 85% ethanol, and 15% gasoline. And this isn't some random percentage pulled out of some scientist's ass. Anything less than 15% gasoline runs the serious risk of causing problems for driver...like not starting on cold days, and not starting after a few days of being idle.
So, 100% ethanol is probably not the way to go at this point...but maybe in a few years!
6 - JR
Bliffle: I believe that the Indy 500 is run on alcohol
The alcohol used in Champ Car and (I think) the Indy Racing League is methanol.
7 - Dave Nalle
The two problems with E100 are the cold weather issue mentioned earlier - which is also an issue with Biodiesel - and the volatility of the fuel. The more Ethanol in your mix, the harder it is on the engine and the better designed and 'tighter' an engine it requires. Ethanol burns faster and produces more power than petroleum does and not all engines are up to the additional stress.
I don't know if the cold weather starting issues can be addressed with an engine warmer as they are in diesel engines. I plan to find out more about this new Saab which has apparently solved all these problems.
Dave
8 - Bliffle
Methanol (methyl alcohol), sometimes called "wood alcohol" is a suboptimal fuel because of it's corrosive effect. Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) "grain alcohol" is more benign. It used to be that Methanol was cheaper and easier to produce, thus making it more desirable, but I'm not sure of relative costs now.
9 - Dave Nalle
There's some concern over corosive effects of Ethanol too, but mainly because of the small amount of water which it contains. MTBE which was just eliminated from gas nationwide and replaced with ethanol was a methanol derivative.
BTW, methanol is also the key chemical used in processing biodiesel.
Dave
10 - Dan
Very nice to see even in the Great Oil State of Texas ..E85 making it's way.
E100 ..yes the biggest problems would be cold start .. some people use a "pre-heater" heating the fuel for better cold start..not something I'd recommend !
E85 Conversion.. extremly simple ..
11 - Hoggle
Saab E100 Concept Car
Saab E100 Hybrid Car prototype
Of course, the long-term solution is to design our lives to need less travel, with compact villages containing all our daily needs, work-from-home, and cheap, clean mass-transit to and from retail and commerce centres.
12 - Dave Nalle
Thanks for the links, Hoggle. But your suggestion of redesigning everything so we live more compactly seems to be the opposite of what's happening here in Texas where the exurb phenomenon with ever longer commutes seems to be the trend. Rather than more urbanization I suspect that virtual offices with people working from home are a more likely solution.
Dave
13 - B
Pssst... The Prius is classified as a mid-sized sedan, not a compact or sub-compact vehicle. If you're going to write, fine. Just get your facts in order beforehand!
14 - Lumpy
What kind of retard classified the prius as a midsize? Does that mean my blazer is a 18-wheeler?
15 - Jet in Columbus
No, maybe they classified the V W beetle as an SUV so it'd qualify for lower MPGs?
16 - Joey
Indy is shifting to eth in 2007. They blended this year with meth.
Hybrids: Big dollar battery-bank change out at year 3 or 4. And your type of driving plays into the purchase decision. If you are doing a lot of city driving, you would very rarely kick into the electric mode. That mostly occurs at highway speeds.
Eth: Why denature it? Is the denatured product causing the cold starting problems. or... employ turbine technology. It will burn it, no problem.
Japanese Imperial Air Force: Flew the Mitsubishi Zero on distilled pine sap, exclusively. This was, of course after the U.S. had effectively stopped imports (oil) from arriving back into Japan.
Japanese Imperial Navy: Ran their ships (boilers) on straight crude oil. That's why they turned into inferno's when torpedoed. Crude has a lot of other ingredients besides the slippery stuff. Things like Methane, natural gas, varnishes etc... creating a much more volitile mix. But the Japanese figured it was cheaper to NOT refine the fuel, and burn it straight from the well.
17 - Dave Nalle
Joey, your last post reminds me of how many things we've used as fuel in the past and senselessly abandonned. Hell, you could still build a car that ran on wooden logs AKA 'biomass' if you wanted to, like the old Stanley Steamer.
Your turbine point is also a good one. That's what makes biodiesel viable, and my reading suggests that E100 will work beautifully in an engine which uses a turbine and pressure induced ignition.
Dave
18 - Joey
Dave,
I had no idea the Model T was capable of burning alcohol. That's a great idea, at a time when petroleum wasn't always available. I understand the old Army duece and a half was multi-fuel capable.
Is bio-diesel a soy product? Then of course along comes the recycled restaurant grease. But that would be a limited resource available only to those who are set up to scavange, and after it caught on, the source would probably be sold, not given away.
Google Hydrogen economy sometime. It's amazing what is starting. However, from what I have read, a fully capable hydrogen economy and associated infrastructure is at least 50 years out.
I remember reading about a pig farmer, who harvested the methane created by his stock to power the farm, including the equipment. That was amazing.
19 - Dave Nalle
I had no idea the Model T was capable of burning alcohol. That's a great idea, at a time when petroleum wasn't always available. I understand the old Army duece and a half was multi-fuel capable.
So is the HMV. In fact the next generation has a multi-fuel hybrid enging.
Is bio-diesel a soy product? Then of course along comes the recycled restaurant grease. But that would be a limited resource available only to those who are set up to scavange, and after it caught on, the source would probably be sold, not given away.
Soy is one of the cheaper sources for biodiesel, but you can use whatever vegetable oil is available. I've even heard of people using lard, though I wouldn't recommend it.
Google Hydrogen economy sometime. It's amazing what is starting. However, from what I have read, a fully capable hydrogen economy and associated infrastructure is at least 50 years out.
That's why I'm focusing on options available now.
I remember reading about a pig farmer, who harvested the methane created by his stock to power the farm, including the equipment. That was amazing.
Sounds like a truly unpleasant way to power your farm.
Dave
20 - Victor Plenty
If you farm hogs (or most any other livestock), methane's already there as one of your inevitable by-products. Capturing at least some of it and getting power from it sounds more pleasant than just letting it all perfume the air for miles around.
21 - Dave Nalle
I guess you have a point there, Victor. But I still don't want to be the one hooking hoses up to pigs buttholes.
Dave
22 - Bliffle
"If you farm hogs (or most any other livestock), methane's already there as one of your inevitable by-products. Capturing at least some of it and getting power from it sounds more pleasant than just letting it all perfume the air for miles around."
After WW2 Europe had little petrol, so people improvised fuel from, among other things, methane. The magazine "Popular Mechanics" had illustrated articles detailing how to convert a small engine to use farm gases. One could see pictures of small vehicles powered by the huge gas bag it towed on a small trailer.
23 - Mark Saleski
this discussion is conjuring up some truly weird mental imagery.
24 - Mark Saleski
of course! i shoulda said weird and funny.
25 - Victor Plenty
Methane isn't harvested from livestock anatomy. Despite Dave's vivid imagery, I've never heard of anyone hooking hoses to hogs.
In gaseous form the methane might be extracted from the air in the animal enclosures (especially if they are in fully enclosed barns), but I don't think that's done very often either, if at all. So in reality, methane power is not really power from farts. That level of efficiency might be possible at some point, but I don't think anybody's quite that desperate yet.
The most common way to collect methane from a livestock facility is to change the process for handling their manure and other waste products such as uneaten feed materials. These waste products have to be handled somehow, so it makes sense to handle them in ways that will let you collect the methane they tend to generate as they decompose.
Another alternative is to arrange for the waste to decompose without generating any methane, but that's a whole different can of worms (sometimes literally) and the end product in such cases usually has nothing to do with energy production, so it's a bit off-topic for this article.