There are lots of people who are tired of the ever-increasing gas prices but feel unable to do anything about it. People who can afford it are getting new, fuel-efficient autos in an effort to control their fuel spending. It wasn’t that long ago that gasoline prices went up throughout the world. We will look to see what alternative options we have for gas.
When you talk about alternative fuel, you are in essence talking about any fuel except for gasoline or diesel. Vehicle have recently been utilizing electric power, solar energy and hybrid, which is a combination of gas and electric. There are even choices for water to run with gas to help with fuel economy. There are reasons why many manufacturers are making the effort to produce cars that use alternative fuels. Europe has tightened the environmental laws, and has taxed fuel, so manufacturers had to do something. There are even tighter restrictions coming out regarding greenhouse gas emissions.
As fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide, and that is a greenhouse gas, and almost all autos run on fossil fuel gas, our atmosphere is getting worse. As a result, we are experiencing global warming at an epic scale. There are cars nowadays that are running on hydrogen, LPG, solar power and fuel cells. Many vehicles that are running on LPG, which stands for liquified petroleum gas, run on a mix of butane and propane too. The compressed gases become a liquid. Not only will cars running on this lower carbon monoxide emission, but cut fuel expense by half compared to diesel and gas.
There are automobiles that utilize solar panels to produce electricity out of the sunlight, and then use the electricity to run an electric motor, or produce another fuel like hydrogen. These vehicles have the solar panels set up on their roofs. A number of autos run on fuels like ethanol which originates from plants. Crops high in carbohydrates, or plants with high levels of sugar are fermented to make alcohol. In Brazil, sugar cane-based ethanol has replaced about 200,000 barrels of fossil oil daily. Poisonous emissions in this country have dropped more than 30% because of ethanol powered autos. There is another type of auto that uses fuel cells, which generate electricity and heat out of hydrogen and oxygen. The emissions on these cars are very clean since the by-products are heat and water vapor.
Hybrid autos, such as the Toyota Prius, use several different energy sources. An electric motor and small gasoline-powered engine combined produces excellent results. The types of fuel are used alternately according the driving condition. When on the freeway, both electricity and fuel are being used while the battery being charged. Resolving environmental issues is the intent of adapting to more expensive fuel prices by looking int alternative energy.