Alternative fuels that'll power your cars sooner than later

With electric cars suffering on the operating range front, auto manufacturers are placing their bets on hydrogen fuel cells. The idea is to develop infrastructure for refueling these fuel cell-powered vehicles, so that they can be refueled in conventional ways. Hydrogen fuel converts chemical energy to electrical energy, which is then supplied to electric motors that power the car.

Biodiesel is manufactured from animal fats and vegetable oils and burns very effectively. The fuel does not contain any petroleum but can be blended with petroleum-based diesel to use as a fuel for vehicles. It is a clean fuel and the emission levels are much lower as compared to conventional fuels. Its not only safe for the environment but also adds up to a nation's economy. Its production from the renewable sources like soybean decrease the dependency on importing oil.

Water as a fuel is a hypothetical concept and still under research. According to it the energy is directly derived from water without any assistance from on-board power inputs. There may also be a hybrid source comprising of water and a traditional source like gasoline. Water is formed by complete oxidation of hydrogen, and hydrogen is itself a highly combustible substance. Generally the energy produced by hydrogen during formation of water is released and thus, water does not burn. This technology aims at breaking the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen and then trapping the energy. But, the process would use energy to slit the water molecule as it would take to oxidize hydrogen to form water. Moreover, the energy loss during the conversion and then burning hydrogen to produce heat would be inevitable.

Urine is not a waste product any more. According to Dr. Gerardine Botte, an Associate Professor from the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department at Ohio University. It would be much more cost effective to extract hydrogen from urine than water by electrolysis. During the process, Dr. Botte and other scientists used artificial urine and subjected it to electrolysis. A urea molecule has four hydrogen atoms, compared to just two in water, which are not bounded together as tightly as in case of water molecule. The urea molecule is oxidised with a nickle-based electrode at 0.37V and thus, gets split.

Conventionally, ethanol is produced from crop and other crops. It is clean burning fuel and produces less amount of green houses gases as compared to other fuels. It is filled in the vehicle after mixing with petrol at varying concentrations. Ethanol consists of oxygen, hence, its inclusion in gasoline augments the efficiency of the fuel by reducing the emissions thereby, resulting in a complete combustion. E10 comprises of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol and is popularly known as gasohol. Many countries also use E85 as a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. It is also likely that proportion of ethanol is increased to 95% to minimize the emission level.

Liquid nitrogen is used to run vehicles designed for the purpose. The engine heats the liquid nitrogen stored in the tank with the help of a heat exchanger. It then extracts the heat out of the atmostpheric air and uses the pressurized gas to cause a piston or an engine to rotate. Though, vehicles with such features have been tested and tried but they are yet to be available commercially.

In addition to liquid nitrogen, simple compressed air could also be used as an alternative to power your car. The basis behind this conception is to produce torque with the help of the air pressure. Cars with such a feature will comprise of carbon-fiber built storage tanks to store compressed air. The carbon-fiber is employed to maintain the power of the engine by reducing the weight of the tank.The technique diminishes the use of spark plugs and cooling system and thereby decreases the cost of the car. The project to build the first air car has already been undertaken by Tata Motors in collaboration with a French company MDI.

CNG has proven to be a good alternative fuel till date. It is produced by compressing natural gas at atmostpheric pressure and is devoid of any air pollutants. It is odorless and non corrosive fuel used in automobiles these days. A huge tank is provided into the vehicle to store the fuel. When it comes to reducing cost and emissions it has already registered a marked improvement by 40% and 80%, respectively. The level of pollution caused is due to the light weight of air and thus, it gets easily diluted in the inflammable state as soon as it leaves a vehicle. However, temperature conditions can cause the fuel to get ignited.

Also called as LPG, the fuel is used in heating appliances and powering automobiles. It is a mixture of combustible hydrocarbons and is primarily used as an aerosol propellant. It substitutes cholorofluorocarbons and hence, reduces the damage done to the ozone layer. The use of LPG has increased by many times in the recent years and it's a common automobile fuel these days.

The process of converting garbage into liquid fuel is called gasification. The solid particles are converted into synthetic gas by heat and not flame, and then distillation is carried out with ethanol. Gasoline is used as a part of the mixture, although, on small scale but the cars supplied with this fuel are already being operated in some countries.