Green Alternative Energy
In simple terms an alternative fuel is one that is not produced from fossil fuels (such as crude oil) and usually exhibit desirable energy efficiency and pollution reduction features. In the US, the 1990 Clean Air Act encourages and rewards the development and sale of alternative fuels.
These days there is an ever increasing global push for people to use alternative fuels as opposed to fossil fuels such as gasoline (petrol). The reasons for this are many, but generally it is because most of the alternative fuels are kinder to the environment and will help to combat the rapidly increasing problem of global warming. The toxic emmissions that are released into the air when we burn gasoline and other fossil fuels have shown to contribute to global warming and if action isn’t taken, winter will soon be as warm as summer.
The cost of driving a car has risen at an alarming rate, so much so that these days many people are looking ways to save money on their fuel bills. This rapid increase in prices has spurred the scientists in their search for economical fuel alternatives that will not only help the environment, but will also help the consumers budget, ie as more and more people adopt some of these alternative fuels to drive their cars and heat and cool their homes, they are helping the environment as well as helping themselves.
There are many different kinds of alternative fuel s available, but probably the best known one and one that has been around a long time is ethanol. Ethanol is made from corn and other organic materials including agricultural crops and waste, plant material left from logging, and trash including paper. Therefore the use of ethanol can also be helpful to the farmers as well as the environment and consumers. In many countries some cars are run on a gasoline-ethanol mix without any damage to the car.
The alcohol found in alcoholic beverages is ethanol, but the ethanol used in motor fuel is “denatured” – which means that additional chemicals have been added to the mix to ensure it cannot be used for drinking. In the past the process of producing ethanol consumed more energy than the resulting ethanol could produce. However, today’s technologies are now capable of producing ethanol with greatly improved efficiencies.
As the oil prices continue to rise and the global warming increases, more and more people will be looking for and switching to alternative fuels – the race is on!
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