Hybrid Tech
For anyone who has spoken to me lately about my latest mission to save the planet (it's not the first time I've been interested in this concept to this degree), I've become interested in reducing greenhouse gases, protecting fossil fuel resources, and promoting a healthier, greener, society. Too bad I don't have the money to do it very well - and I'm up against a mountain of opposition - but more on that at a different time.
The latest iteration of this quest is a focus on automobiles. I've come to the decision that this is the place where a chance can easily be made for everyone. TO that end, I've been researching alternative fuel technologies and which will be the best for my next vehicle purchase (whenever that might be). I refuse (hands down) to buy a car without some sort of alternative vehicle option, and I think (and would support) legislation in the US needs to help this goal for everyone out there.
First off was my fascination with Biodiesel. Like many people, I first found out about this through Dirty Jobs (one of my favorite programs on TV today). For those who don't know what this is, it is basically the hydrocarbon chains loped off a fatty acid - the fatty acid coming from a mixture of sources, mainly vegetable oil. The primary advantages of Biodiesel are fairly self evident - it can run in a conventional diesel engine, it does not waste fossil fuel resources, and it can be made at home with a little simple chemistry (maybe that's what turned me on to it in the first place...). The other advantages are also pretty substantial - it will improve your cars fuel efficiency, clean out your engine, create less waste exhaust and make your car smell like fried food!
While thoughts of me siphoning off waste oil from fry kitchens across Corvallis went through my head, I neglected to think that Biodiesel could really be bad in any way. In fact, I thought it was the perfect alternative fuel! Well, I was wrong.
The main reason biodiesel will not replace gasoline is sustainability. The amount of plant material it takes to create the amount of oils needed for fueling the cars in the USA is enough to require clear-cutting the rest of the Amazon. We simply can't grow enough - not to mention all the resources needed on getting the plants to the oil stage. While biodiesel certainly shows advantages in creating more energy than it takes to grow the plant, this does not take into account global use of the fuel. For those of you who still plan on siphoning off the oils from your local fast food restaurants, there's still some hope, though. In that case, you use WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) and you have already cut through a lot of energy input (basically, in this case, we're thinking of Biodiesel as recycling spent food oils).
But there's still more problems for biodiesel. As a fuel goes, it's not that clean. Sure, emissions are reduced, but they are not gone. In fact, nitrogenated compounds coming out of biodiesel (diesel fuel, or petrodiesel, has sulfur and nitrogen compounds emitted when it combusts) are high (biodiesel at least cuts down on the sulfur dramatically). Particulates (heavy molecules that can injure lung tissues or collect in rain) are not completely gone, and the carbon output, though decreased, is still substantial. The bottom line is really that biodiesel is not a perfect solution to all our environmental woes. While its better than gas, it's certainly far from perfect.
Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) is another biodiesel cousin. Without going into the details, the concept is basically you can through vegetable oil into your engine and run it. The disadvantage is that you have to do a few modifications to get it going, and you can't bypass diesel use completely. Its certainly a very attractive-sounding fuel, but essentially it has the same drawbacks as biodiesel. It just sounds pretty cool to be able to dump a gallon of Canola is your tank and go!
Ethanol is something I heard a lot about in the midwest, and I realize that I've heard ALMOST NOTHING about it in the West. Why? Corn. Ethanol (as a fuel) comes from Corn, primarily, and... well, we don't grow a lot of corn out here. Ethanol is attractive mainly because its created here in the good ol' USA. It's certainly renewable... but it's also very political. Why would people want a fuel that creates just about the same amount of emissions as regular gasoline? Iowa (I'll point out that many of the research done as corn ethanol as a poorly suited replacement for gas have been done in California, not the mid-west. *wink*).
Iowa primaries. Iowa farmers. Government subsidies. Get the picture? If you don't support farmers, you'll never carry Iowa in an election. People are getting the picture that sugar is bad for you, and corn is a source of many sugars we consume in our diets. Thus, farmers need to put their corn to use in other arenas. Governments need the money they spend on corn each year (do they pay for the growing of Spinach? Nooooooo...) to good use (mainly so the farmers will keep them in office). If anything ethanol degrades engine parts, decreases fuel economy, and to overcome these short falls requires modifications to an engine that make it unsuitable for the use of gasoline in the future. Is it any wonder that GM has put out an ethanol vehicle, but the foreign manufacturers don't? Additionally, ethanol has the same plant-based problems as biodiesel - mass production of plants to create the fuel is just not very sustainable - and it's costly. We really need to think of something else than this.
Electricity is the way to go, I think. While hybrid technologies (like hybrid gas/electric or future hydrogen/gas) cars still run on gasoline, they are just transition vehicles. Eventually we will get to fully electric/fully hydrogen vehicles. Actually, we already had them - if you watch Who killed the electric car? you'll hear so much more about it (including the very popular EV1 and RAV4-electric). Personally, I want an electric vehicle. But most of what's out there I can't afford (what I really want in a Tesla Roadster, but I don't seem to have $105,000 right now), or I find too cramping for my large frame (like the pod-type cars with 1 or 2 seats). Soon enough electric will come through, but for now, I'm sticking with Hybrids.
I'll say a little bit about Hydrogen, since it was in the news a lot a few years ago. Hydrogen sounds great, but it's become a) too political b) too experimental and c) not the perfect solution everyone wants. Ask anyone who is against the oil industry why Hydrogen craps their ass and you'll hear why. It basically has given the oil industry a "get out of jail, free" card for the next 15 years. Dammit. Has anyone asked where we are going to get all that hydrogen from anyway?
Electric is going to the wave of the future. Renewable energy sources, including the harvesting of electricity from all the above mentioned fuels, can go into one pool that can be spread throughout the country. Instead of relying on any one source individually, we combine them all - and produce output to meet demand in a safe way. But for now, we have to settle for a transition, I think. While clean electricity isn't here yet, we can take steps to make it better. Has anyone else thought about putting solar panels on their house? I have! In the meantime...
Hybrid cars (Gas/Electric) are the best thing we've got right now. With miles per gallon above 50, they can reduce most people's consumption of gasoline by 50% or more. As they are getting better. Several companies in California are now suping up hybrids to make them plug-ins (PEHVs) getting fuel economies of about 100mpg. With tax incentives and other programs, this makes (in my mind) the Toyota Prius or the Honda Civic Hybrid two of the most interesting cars on the market today. They aren't perfect, but perfection might not be far off...
Long story short, I'm soon to be in the market for a Toyota or Honda Hybrid. But more about that next time.
The latest iteration of this quest is a focus on automobiles. I've come to the decision that this is the place where a chance can easily be made for everyone. TO that end, I've been researching alternative fuel technologies and which will be the best for my next vehicle purchase (whenever that might be). I refuse (hands down) to buy a car without some sort of alternative vehicle option, and I think (and would support) legislation in the US needs to help this goal for everyone out there.
First off was my fascination with Biodiesel. Like many people, I first found out about this through Dirty Jobs (one of my favorite programs on TV today). For those who don't know what this is, it is basically the hydrocarbon chains loped off a fatty acid - the fatty acid coming from a mixture of sources, mainly vegetable oil. The primary advantages of Biodiesel are fairly self evident - it can run in a conventional diesel engine, it does not waste fossil fuel resources, and it can be made at home with a little simple chemistry (maybe that's what turned me on to it in the first place...). The other advantages are also pretty substantial - it will improve your cars fuel efficiency, clean out your engine, create less waste exhaust and make your car smell like fried food!
While thoughts of me siphoning off waste oil from fry kitchens across Corvallis went through my head, I neglected to think that Biodiesel could really be bad in any way. In fact, I thought it was the perfect alternative fuel! Well, I was wrong.
The main reason biodiesel will not replace gasoline is sustainability. The amount of plant material it takes to create the amount of oils needed for fueling the cars in the USA is enough to require clear-cutting the rest of the Amazon. We simply can't grow enough - not to mention all the resources needed on getting the plants to the oil stage. While biodiesel certainly shows advantages in creating more energy than it takes to grow the plant, this does not take into account global use of the fuel. For those of you who still plan on siphoning off the oils from your local fast food restaurants, there's still some hope, though. In that case, you use WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) and you have already cut through a lot of energy input (basically, in this case, we're thinking of Biodiesel as recycling spent food oils).
But there's still more problems for biodiesel. As a fuel goes, it's not that clean. Sure, emissions are reduced, but they are not gone. In fact, nitrogenated compounds coming out of biodiesel (diesel fuel, or petrodiesel, has sulfur and nitrogen compounds emitted when it combusts) are high (biodiesel at least cuts down on the sulfur dramatically). Particulates (heavy molecules that can injure lung tissues or collect in rain) are not completely gone, and the carbon output, though decreased, is still substantial. The bottom line is really that biodiesel is not a perfect solution to all our environmental woes. While its better than gas, it's certainly far from perfect.
Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) is another biodiesel cousin. Without going into the details, the concept is basically you can through vegetable oil into your engine and run it. The disadvantage is that you have to do a few modifications to get it going, and you can't bypass diesel use completely. Its certainly a very attractive-sounding fuel, but essentially it has the same drawbacks as biodiesel. It just sounds pretty cool to be able to dump a gallon of Canola is your tank and go!
Ethanol is something I heard a lot about in the midwest, and I realize that I've heard ALMOST NOTHING about it in the West. Why? Corn. Ethanol (as a fuel) comes from Corn, primarily, and... well, we don't grow a lot of corn out here. Ethanol is attractive mainly because its created here in the good ol' USA. It's certainly renewable... but it's also very political. Why would people want a fuel that creates just about the same amount of emissions as regular gasoline? Iowa (I'll point out that many of the research done as corn ethanol as a poorly suited replacement for gas have been done in California, not the mid-west. *wink*).
Iowa primaries. Iowa farmers. Government subsidies. Get the picture? If you don't support farmers, you'll never carry Iowa in an election. People are getting the picture that sugar is bad for you, and corn is a source of many sugars we consume in our diets. Thus, farmers need to put their corn to use in other arenas. Governments need the money they spend on corn each year (do they pay for the growing of Spinach? Nooooooo...) to good use (mainly so the farmers will keep them in office). If anything ethanol degrades engine parts, decreases fuel economy, and to overcome these short falls requires modifications to an engine that make it unsuitable for the use of gasoline in the future. Is it any wonder that GM has put out an ethanol vehicle, but the foreign manufacturers don't? Additionally, ethanol has the same plant-based problems as biodiesel - mass production of plants to create the fuel is just not very sustainable - and it's costly. We really need to think of something else than this.
Electricity is the way to go, I think. While hybrid technologies (like hybrid gas/electric or future hydrogen/gas) cars still run on gasoline, they are just transition vehicles. Eventually we will get to fully electric/fully hydrogen vehicles. Actually, we already had them - if you watch Who killed the electric car? you'll hear so much more about it (including the very popular EV1 and RAV4-electric). Personally, I want an electric vehicle. But most of what's out there I can't afford (what I really want in a Tesla Roadster, but I don't seem to have $105,000 right now), or I find too cramping for my large frame (like the pod-type cars with 1 or 2 seats). Soon enough electric will come through, but for now, I'm sticking with Hybrids.
I'll say a little bit about Hydrogen, since it was in the news a lot a few years ago. Hydrogen sounds great, but it's become a) too political b) too experimental and c) not the perfect solution everyone wants. Ask anyone who is against the oil industry why Hydrogen craps their ass and you'll hear why. It basically has given the oil industry a "get out of jail, free" card for the next 15 years. Dammit. Has anyone asked where we are going to get all that hydrogen from anyway?
Electric is going to the wave of the future. Renewable energy sources, including the harvesting of electricity from all the above mentioned fuels, can go into one pool that can be spread throughout the country. Instead of relying on any one source individually, we combine them all - and produce output to meet demand in a safe way. But for now, we have to settle for a transition, I think. While clean electricity isn't here yet, we can take steps to make it better. Has anyone else thought about putting solar panels on their house? I have! In the meantime...
Hybrid cars (Gas/Electric) are the best thing we've got right now. With miles per gallon above 50, they can reduce most people's consumption of gasoline by 50% or more. As they are getting better. Several companies in California are now suping up hybrids to make them plug-ins (PEHVs) getting fuel economies of about 100mpg. With tax incentives and other programs, this makes (in my mind) the Toyota Prius or the Honda Civic Hybrid two of the most interesting cars on the market today. They aren't perfect, but perfection might not be far off...
Long story short, I'm soon to be in the market for a Toyota or Honda Hybrid. But more about that next time.