Goodbye Petrol Stations: An Overview of Alternative Car Fuels

Calls for the cuts of carbon emissions and the lowering supplies of fossil fuels have led to a marked rise in vehicles running on alternative fuel sources over the last 10 years. Most people will be familiar with the technology found in hybrid cars; however, advances in technology may see even more changes in the fuels we use to power our daily commute.

In our immediate future, the hybrid car is the only type of motor vehicle that can match a standard petrol vehicle in terms of performance. The concept has been in production since 1997 and sales have grown significantly since, especially in the last few years.

So, how does a hybrid work? In simple terms, a hybrid vehicle is a combination of a petrol engine and an electric battery. The battery works in conjunction with the engine, allowing saved energy to be used to power the vehicle. The system massively reduces emissions and fuel consumption, so not only will you doing less harm to the environment, but to your wallet too.

Prices for hybrid vehicles are starting to drop as more manufacturers begin to produce differing hybrid designs, the competition is forcing prices down. Honda’s new Jazz Hybrid can be seen as a good barometer for the falling costs as one of the growing numbers of hybrid cars under the £20,000 mark.

However, the hybrid has competition. Battery-powered electric cars are also on the rise with the backing of a multitude of government schemes. The electric vehicle battery (EVB) car has been around for a long time, but it has only been in the last couple of years that using one has become viable. In 1997, California tried to encourage car buyers to adopt electric vehicles by investing a lot of money into installing electric charging stations and offering benefits to those who adopted the technology. However, the limited distance achievable by electric vehicles in the late 90s led to very few consumers and the scheme was eventually scrapped.

Today, a similar thing is occurring. The UK Government is currently offering a grant of up to £5,000 for any potential electric or low emission hybrid owner. Most of the cars to meet the specifications for the grant are yet to be released; however, some vehicles released in early 2011 do qualify for the scheme. Further to this, the government is granting road tax exemption to drivers of a selection of electric vehicles and installing charging docks in metropolitan areas.

An EVB vehicle ideally needs to be charged for around 10 to 12 hours, but a quick boost on a charging station may give you enough juice for the journey home. Newer electric cars can reach roughly 90 miles on a full charge, but the lack of charging stations across long trips means that it is still not recommended for any motorist with a lengthy commute.

Ideally an EVB battery would be able to last much longer; however, a battery’s power output is generally associated with its size and a large increase in that can add weight to a vehicle thus requiring a larger energy output. So, to increase the distance possible by an electric vehicle, manufacturers can either find ways of reducing the power output required by the vehicle or design a more efficient battery.

This is exactly what researchers at MIT hope some of their cutting edge technology can achieve. Nanowire batteries could eventually become the standard battery found in any type of electric vehicle.

The discovery of a never-before-seen chemical reaction at MIT may have provided a breakthrough in stored electricity. Miniscule tubes coated in chemical fuel have been proven to provide a power output that is 100 times more than conventional batteries by weight.

Nano-scale fuses guide the chemical reaction when an electric current is introduced to them and can accelerate it up to 10,000 times. This can provide a huge sum of energy and may be considered as a potential fuel cell in the future.

The hydrogen fuel cell is a concept that has fallen away over the past few years. The technology is fantastic at removing emissions and the fuel is exceptionally cheap. However, fuel cells are fragile and costly to produce and furthermore, they do not work in temperatures below freezing. The low number of fuelling stations paired with the creases that need to be ironed out have stalled progress on the technology; however, should hydrogen eventually become a more popular source of energy in motor vehicles, we can look forward to travelling for just 19 pence per litre.