McPherson High School
McPherson, Kansas
Teacher: Robin Long
Fuels of the Future
By Travis Prickett
12th Grade
Many types of alternative fuels are being introduced into the world everyday. Bio diesel, ethanol, methanol, and propane are just a few. All of these fuels are in some sense better, but they all have their…faults.
Bio diesel is a new type of diesel fuel that is made from natural substances such as oils, fats, and grease. You can use this fuel in any Diesel compression-ignition engine built after 1994 with little or no modification. A big factor in using Bio diesel is that it won’t fire very well when it’s cold out…. This is because of the B100 that is put in bio diesel. Also it produces 75% less carbon dioxide.
Ethanol “E85” is a fuel that is made up of alcohol and starch crops such as corn, wheat, and barely. Ethanol is mostly used to blend with gasoline to improve emissions quality and increase the octane. It is a clear colorless liquid that has somewhat a sweet flavor, but it has a burning taste if concentrated. E85 uses slightly different equipment and costs about the same to use the equipment. It is one of the safest fuels for your car and the environment today.
Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, is not a very common type of fuel used these days. It can be blended with gasoline to enhance octane and create cleaner burning fuel. In the future methanol could possibly be the fuel of choice for providing the hydrogen necessary to power fuel cell vehicles. Some of the benefits of methanol include higher performance and lower risk of flammability than gasoline. It can be manufactured from a variety of carbon-based feedstocks such as natural gas, coal, and wood. On the down side, methanol produces a high amount of formaldehyde in emissions.
Propane is actually liquefied petroleum gas. This gas is a good alternative fuel choice for vehicles because there are already facilities and pipelines and storage for its efficient distribution. Propane is readily available to the general public, but it produces fewer vehicle emissions than gasoline. Propane is a by product of natural gas. Propane produces fewer ozone-forming emissions than vehicles powered by gasoline. Propane also cost less then gasoline. So by using propane in a vehicle will save money and it is better for the environment. Approximately 85 percent of all propane produced in the U.S. comes from domestic sources; so driving a propane vehicle can reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 was intended to establish a comprehensive, long-range energy policy. This new policy has 1700 pages of how to make everything better when it comes to energy. Some of the new ideas are as follows; provides a tax credit of up to $3,400 for owners of hybrid vehicles, provides for $1.65 billion in tax credits for clean coal projects, authorizes loan guarantees for "innovative technologies" that avoid greenhouse gasses which might include advanced nuclear reactor designs (such as PBMR) as well as clean coal and renewable energy. It increases the amount of bio-fuel (usually Ethanol) that must be mixed with gasoline sold in the United States to triple the current requirement (7.5 billion gallons by 2012) seeks to increase coal as an energy source while also reducing air pollution, through authorizing $200 million annually for clean coal initiatives, repealing the current 160-acre cap on coal leases, allowing the advanced payment of royalties from coal mines and requiring an assessment of coal resources on federal lands that are not national parks: It also authorizes subsidies for wind energy, and other alternative energy producers, adds ocean energy sources including wave power and tidal power for the first time as separately identified renewable technologies, authorizes $50 million annually over the life of the bill for a biomass grant program. It contains several provisions aimed at making geothermal energy more competitive with fossil fuels in generating electricity, requires the U.S. Department of Energy to study and report on existing natural energy resources including wind, solar, waves and tides, requires the U.S. Department of Energy to study and report on national benefits of demand response and make a recommendation on achieving specific levels of benefits and encourages time-based pricing and other forms of demand response as a policy decision
So when it comes down to it, most alternative fuels cost less, are much better for the environment, are made from natural or biodegradable products, and reduce the dependence on imported oil. Alternative fuels are a good idea.
(www.usda.gov/energyandenvironment/altFuel/faq.htm)
(www.eia.doe.gov/fuelalternate.html)
(www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050808-6.html)