Alternative fuel?

[jwhitey]

What do you guys think will be the best alternative fuel for cars?
ethanol
methane
hydrogen
The big 3 and a few japanese manufacters have made cars that will run off of each so which do you think is best?

[mchastek]

Justin - interestingly enough, I've heard a lot about diesel and biodiesel from several major manufacturers (including VW). The infrastructure developments required for fuels such as hydrogen are enormous, but we've already got diesel. I'd love to hear some other comments and opinions as well.

Great question!

[jwhitey]

Biodiesel though is so accessable you don't have to change anything with the engine. You can run it in diesel. I think why it has been so big is because that the goverment would try to step in and tax it. It is however better for the enigine it's self. But ethanol I think would change the world. It cost half the price of gas to make. Methane is easier you can make it from manure with some nature exracts and water it can be created into a very well manageable fuel. Hydrogen is the way I think things will sway because the automakers seem to favor it. With a hydrogen fuel cell and an enigne a skateboard so to speak can be made. An you could change out the body on top of it. Saving automakers a bundle on chasis and engines. So I think it will go Hydrongen not sure though.

[Fixmywindshield.com]

well,

if Ethanol is less expensive to make why the heck in missouri is it .50 cents a gallon less? should be 1/2 price of regular gas. I think auto makers will keep on the trend of more glass, and more lighter materials to get better gas mileage.

Larry Diesbach

[Joe Limon]

I heard it takes 1.3 barrels of oil to make one barrel of ethanol (and this is from popular mechanics)

[caressa]

Several manufacturers have acquired ethanol such as Ford and Toyota to name a few. Hydrogen is still on its development process, and believe me, the research for hydrogen as an alternative fuel is super expensive. Methane is accessible, but i believe ethanol will have a blast for the next years to come. 2 years from now, I'll be saying goodbye to my old car with the broken oil filter because I'm planning to get an Escape...hopefully! :)

[Joe Limon]

Hydrogen isn't all that great from what I have learned. First its still inefficient to produce requiring vast amounts of energy to produce small amounts of hydrogen. Second if you operate a fuel cell at room temperature you will get a maximum of 60% efficiency out of it, you need temperatures of 800-900 celcius to get a 90% energy efficiency. Few materials can handle this, and if you add in all the vibrations of a vehicle even fewer will retain ductility. Also, because of the incredible temperature massive amounts of energy are required to start the reaction. And finally storage issues are still prevalent. You can store it as a compressed gas, but the cylinders tend to be huge to get decent mileage per tank. Or you could super cool it and store the hydrogen as a liquid... but if you do that, you have to waste energy cooling the hydrogen, and then waste more energy warming it up again... especially if its back up to the 800-900 degree optimum operating temperature. Overall hydrogen can be useful, its just that it has many many hurdles to overcome before we see it in cars.