Fuel Of The Future

Alternative Fuel Secrets — By Shopping Blogs on December 13, 2009 8:50 am

The best fuel alternatives to gasoline and crude oil are those that are renewable energies and natural resources. There are ideas and inventions that raise questions like would the general population be able to run their cars on vegetable oil, can a car run on water or compressed aid, how successful are battery operated vehicles, can cars run on solar energy alone and more.

Some of these questions may seem like a fantasy or scenes from a science fiction movie, but they are valid questions that pose endless possibilities for the automotive future.

Take, for example, the possibility of hydrogen powered cars. Hydrogen is a light element with a very high energy return. If you think it is too good to be true, then think again. There are already kits and conversions available that will allow you to replace the need for gasoline with water right out of your garden hose.

But before you start disassembling your car to replace the gasoline tank, take a step back. There are set backs to running your car on water. While water is a viable fuel source, the energy earned from one gallon of water entered into the tank is about half a gallon of fuel. So you are wasting half your effort and fuel by using hydrogen.

Wasting half a gallon of water is still cheaper than purchasing half a gallon of gasoline. However, there are other setbacks to using water as your only fuel source. Some hydrogen fuel studies have shown that the water can damage the motor and metal parts of the car. After all, water and metal can sometimes cause rust, and to date, no cars have been fueled by rust.

Vegetable oil is also a trendy alternative gas option. There are plenty of stories about people who have powered their car with the discarded french fry oil from a local fast food restaurant. You may consider this an urban legend, but there could be some truth to it.

Any diesel engine can be converted to run off of vegetable oil. If you are savvy enough to convert your own diesel, you may be able to bargain the used vegetable oil from a local restaurant, but you would have to filter the oil. As long as you had the right bins and a little time to do that, it may be well worth your effort. Or you could purchase the oil from a restaurant wholesaler.

Farmers can greatly benefit by converting their tractors and farm equipment to vegetable oil powered vehicles and may enjoy the great feeling of supporting alternative gasoline resources.

So if all these alternative resources are viable and available, why are we all not driving cars powered by oil? There simply is not enough of it to make a considerable dent in the gasoline usage.

The economic consequences of losing dependency on oil are also uncertain. Such a topsy turvy twist in the demand would make corn farmers as rich as oil fields and at the same turn have a sudden loss in the pocketbooks of the oil companies.

As technology and our environmental sensitivity changes, perhaps cars will evolve into more futuristic power sources. Until then, there are several changes you can research that will improve your gas mileage and help you save the resource and a little money as well.

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