One of the biggest problems for me in terms of alternative energy is that I never understood the purpose - I always thought, does the government just want to make more money off of us? Are they pushing different fuel sources just so we are forced to buy new cars, since gasoline won’t be available? And there was always the suspicion in my mind that the “energy crisis” was just some tree-hugging lunatics trying to scare us.
I have kind of grown out of these fears, and as I learn more about renewable energy sources the more sense the concept makes to me. Not only does gasoline produce high amounts of air pollution, but it is not a renewable energy source and will eventually run out - then where will we be? Well, we’ll be using one of our alternative energy sources, that’s where.
One source of alternative energy is natural gases and propane. They generally emit fewer pollutants into the air, and are safe to use in cars. The problem here, however, is that they release considerably higher amounts of nitrous oxide. Another problem is that this option does not produce as much energy as gasoline, so more is needed to power a car, and since natural gas still emits pollutants, this does not seem like the greatest or more efficient source. But still we try.
Alcohol fuels are another option. They lower ozone concentrations (in the troposphere, I assume) and carbon monoxide emissions as well. On the down side, many alcohol fuels emit carcinogens that can be equally as harmful to our health as the air pollutants emitted by gasoline. Alcohol fuel also emits high amounts of nitrous oxide.
Ethanol is yet another option. Ethanol is considerably better for the environment than gasoline, but it is much more expensive and not as energy-efficient.
Hydrogen is ok as an alternative fuel source. It is easy to produce, but very costly to store, especially in liquid forms. Also, like all the other alternative fuel methods, hydrogen is not as potent as gasoline when it comes to energy, so a considerably higher amount of hydrogen is needed to power an automobile than gasoline.
There seems to be many alternatives to gasoline, however none of them fit our needs perfectly. Obviously, we will have to find an alternative fuel source eventually, because the oil present on the earth will eventually run out. Also, one of the biggest problems with alternative fuel right now is that there is no economic demand for them - few people own cars that can operate on anything but gasoline, and in today’s economy not many people are spending lots of money on new cars, especially not the expensive hybrids and other environmentally friendly automobiles. However, this problem would disappear if hybrids and alternative fuels were the only products on the market - if gasoline was no longer produced, and ALL cars were made to run on alternative fuel, then people would be forced to buy them because they have no other option. This will probably not happen incredibly soon, but in my opinion it seems like we’re headed in this direction, especially as fuel-emission standards are constantly being lowered and “going green” becomes more and more popular.
References:
http://wf2dnvr14.webfeat.org/
Accessed 3-11-09
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I personally think it is interesting how experts say how these alternative fuels are so much better for us and the environment, when in reality, they also have harmful effects. Not to mention, they can also be quite expensive. At this point, I feel that no fuel can be perfect. Yes, hydrogen seems like our best alternative as of right now, but it is extremely costly. And other fuels can have negative effects on our health similar to gasoline. I think that we do need to do research in order to find a way to have sources of energy in the future, but for now gasoline definately seems like our best option. People just don't seem concerned enough about the environmental benefits in order to spend the money on hybrid cars or more expensive gasoline.
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