Alternative Fuels

Georgia Agriculture Education

May 2007
 Why Alternative Fuels?
• As the cost of conventional fuels goes up,
the interest in other fuel sources increase
• In some cases, alternative fuels are more
environmentally friendly
• Some alternative fuels are more energy
efficient
 Types of Alternative Fuels
• Ethanol
• Natural gas
• Propane
• Hydrogen
• Biodiesel
• Electricity
• Methanol
 Ethanol
• Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel
produced by fermenting and distilling starch
crops or cellulose that have been converted into
simple sugars
• Ethanol is most commonly used to increase
octane and improve the emissions quality of
gasoline.
• Ethanol can be blended with gasoline to create
E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline.
• Ethanol can degrade quickly in water, therefore,
posing less environmental harm than oil in the
case of a spill
 Ethanol
• Ethanol is an excellent, clean-burning fuel,
potentially providing more horsepower than
gasoline. In fact, ethanol has a higher octane
rating (over 100) and burns cooler than gasoline
• One acre of corn can produce 300 gal. of
ethanol per growing season. So, in order to
replace that 200 billion gal. of petroleum
products, American farmers would need to
dedicate 675 million acres, or 71 percent of the
nation's 938 million acres of farmland, to
growing feedstock.
 Natural Gas
• Natural gas is produced either from gas wells
• or in conjunction with crude oil production.
• Because of the gaseous nature of this fuel, it must be
stored onboard a vehicle in either a compressed
gaseous state or in a liquefied state
• A natural gas vehicle can be less expensive to operate
than a comparable conventionally fueled vehicle
depending on natural gas prices.
• The United States has vast natural gas reserves across
the country
• Vehicles tend to cost $3500 to $6000 more than
gasoline powered ones
 Propane
• Propane or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a
popular alternative fuel choice for vehicles because there
is already an infrastructure of pipelines, processing
facilities, and storage for its efficient distribution.
• LPG produces fewer vehicle emissions than gasoline.
• Propane is produced as a by-product of natural gas
processing and crude oil refining.
• Propane vehicles can produce fewer ozone-forming
emissions than vehicles powered by reformulated
gasoline
• The cost of a gasoline-gallon equivalent of propane is
generally less than that of gasoline, so driving a propane
vehicle can save money.
 Hydrogen
• Hydrogen, a gas, will play an important
role in developing sustainable transportation
in the United States, because in the future it may be produced in
virtually unlimited quantities using renewable resources.
• Hydrogen and oxygen from air fed into a proton exchange
membrane fuel cell produce enough electricity to power an electric
automobile, without producing harmful emissions. The only
byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is water.
• Currently there are no original equipment manufacturer vehicles
available for sale to the general public. Experts estimate that in
approximately 10-20 years hydrogen vehicles, and the infrastructure
to support them, will start to make an impact.
 Biodiesel
• Biodiesel is a domestically produced, renewable
fuel that can be manufactured from vegetable
oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases.
• Biodiesel is safe, biodegradable, and reduces
serious air pollutants such as particulates,
carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and air toxics.
• Biodiesel can also be used in its pure form but it
may require certain engine modifications to
avoid maintenance and performance problems
and may not be suitable for wintertime use.
 Biodiesel
• Pure biodiesel, B100, costs about $3.50--roughly
a dollar more per gallon than petrodiesel.
• Need to heat storage tanks in colder climates to
prevent the fuel from gelling
• Like E85, biodiesel began with farm co-ops and
local entrepreneurs. High fuel prices affect
farmers, too, and here was an opportunity to
make money from otherwise fallow farmland.
 Electricity
• Electricity can be used as a transportation fuel to
power battery electric and fuel cell vehicles.
When used to power electric vehicles, electricity
is stored in an energy storage device such as a
battery.
• EV batteries have a limited storage capacity and
their electricity must be replenished by plugging
the vehicle into an electrical source.
• EVs have lower "fuel" and maintenance costs
than gasoline-powered vehicles.
 Electricity
• Vehicles that operate only on electricity
require no warm-up, run almost silently
and have excellent performance up to the
limit of their range. Also, electric cars are
cheap to "refuel." At the average price of
10 cents per kwh, it costs around 2 cents
per mile.
• Pure electric cars still have limited range,
typically no more than 100 to 120 miles.
 Methanol
• Methanol, also known as wood alcohol, can be
used as an alternative fuel in flexible fuel
vehicles that run on M85
• It is not a commonly used fuel at this time as
methanol produces a high amount of
formaldehyde in emissions.
• The benefits include lower emissions, higher
performance, and lower risk of flammability than
gasoline
• Methanol can easily be made into hydrogen for
hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the future.
 Methanol
• Methanol is extremely corrosive, requiring
special materials for delivery and storage.
Methanol, in addition, has only 51 percent of the
BTU content of gasoline by volume, which
means its fuel economy is worse than ethanol's.
• Methane also can be produced by processing
biomass such as grass clippings, sawdust and
other cellulose sources.