aeromotacanucks Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 my question is simple. if you have a choice between a Hybrid car and a Biofuel car (powered by Etanol or Biodisel) what would you choose? Biofuel: Many people say that biofuel cars are cheaper, more simple, easy to get used and the tecnology already exist. it will reduce the necessity of gasoline and diesel and the consequence would be a country independent from the high prices of petroleum... many countries use this tecnology so the tecnology is there. in fact many countries use cars with 3 fuel options at the same time ["flex fuel"] (gasoline, etanol and butane) Hybrids: the engine is more eficient and gives more KM/liter or MPG using a conventional engine with a KERS. you wouldn´t need use biofuel soo many countries would need just sell cars instead create new facilities and production lines. a high number of hybrids would decrease the gas cost and people could buy more cars boosting the economy... personal opinion: I´m used with biofuel cars and I like them, BUT I would like to see a Hybrid car with biofuel tecnology, the fuel cost would decrease since you would be able to do more km/liter ( or MPG). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MC Fatigue Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Just my take on the information i've read/seen on this topic: Biofuel is an intersting thing. in order to decrease greenhouse emissions (to almost nil) we can use carbon based fuel. pretty cool. however, the amount of plant matter needed to run simply say, BC's cars, would require ridiculous amounts of acreage to produce. land would have to be cleared to make room for fuel-creating crops. hybrids on the other hand are also intriguing but the use of deadly chemicals and heavy metals in producing them at this point make them a hazard once the life of the battery has run its course and in the meantime they do create greenhouse and carbon emissions, albiet much less than most fossil fuel burning vehicles. I like the idea of a biofuel hybrid. I'm not sure one is on the market at this point or in the production stage. Its an intriguing idea (if its not already out there) that you could run a vehicle on absolute zero greenhouse (etc) emissions and at the same time use much less of these biofuel alternatives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Neither. My V6 or Hydrogen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Neither. My V6 or Hydrogen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offensive Threat Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Biofuels have a lot of drawbacks to overcome. The whole "food vs fuel" debate has merit and there still needs to be huge improvements in the amount of resources expended to create each unit of biofuel. The amount of clean water used to create each litre of biofuel from planting to end production is far to high and thats just one of the many resources. A biofuel hybrid would be nice to see. With constant improvements to the biofuel production methods and cost effective hybrid battery recycling on the way it may be a viable choice in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tystick Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I agree with the Hydrogen idea. It would be the cleanest possible source, essentially running cars on water. Bio-fuel and Hybrid are both great options, but I think if anything Hybrid will be reinvented to run on Bio-fuel and Electricity and possibly Hydrogen. The future is going green, I love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 For now? High efficiency gas engine. In future? Probably hydrogen fuel cell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I agree with the Hydrogen idea. It would be the cleanest possible source, essentially running cars on water. Bio-fuel and Hybrid are both great options, but I think if anything Hybrid will be reinvented to run on Bio-fuel and Electricity and possibly Hydrogen. The future is going green, I love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Nuclear - the car might outlive refueling. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/nuclear-powered-car.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tystick Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Except you need energy to produce the hydrogen in the first place. That would require a LOT of energy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronthecivil Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Thing is that unless someone is providing the energy for their hydrogen or electric car from an independent green energy source it's carbon footprint isn't any better than a gasoline car. In fact a high efficiency gas car would have a lower footprint. The hydrogen or electricity would require energy. Even the socket in the wall producing electricity has a greenhouse gas footprint. But you would say "alas, BC Hydro is called Hydro for a reason!". And it is. However, right now, we're net energy importers. So while we produce hydro power, we buy a lot of whatever energy, including coal, especially at night when your electric or hydrogen fuel cell car would be fueling. And since (for now unless site C happens) we're not exactly expanding green production (well not enough to even cover population growth) adding a new user to the system wouldn't be using hydro power. It's all already being used. It would have to be additional energy. Most likely extra coal power from the states. So in effect by going non conventional (gas or deisel) fuel your using grid energy which in North America should you be figuring out your footprint would be primarily coal but increasing natural gas. If you want to minimize your footprint buy a high efficiency gas or deisel vehicle and use the money saved to live closer to work in a smaller house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeromotacanucks Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 one day I made this question to many friends: "Imagine that you can have a car for 5000 dollars powered only by eletricity or by ethanol (very small tank, like 5 liters), the car could transport only 2 people and 50kgs of bags, a very small car indeed, smaller than the "Smart". now imagine this car with a range of 200KM. would you buy it? at least for urban use?" 95% of them said. "Yes" like. why we need a V8 or an SUV for urban use and carring 4 people? if you don´t carry a heavy load or use for long trips you don´t need such vehicle. actually why do you need a 200HP car for urban/short trips use if you can have a 90HP car saving more fuel and doing the same thing? recently I noticed that USA is buying Ethanol from us, actually we have huge ships (tankers) with zillions of liters of Ethanol heading to USA. produce ethanol from sugar cane is 5 times cheaper than produce sugar from corn like US does. however We don´t see many gas stations offering Ethanol in US... perhaps we should see if we have the right car for or personal use... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 one day I made this question to many friends: "Imagine that you can have a car for 5000 dollars powered only by eletricity or by ethanol (very small tank, like 5 liters), the car could transport only 2 people and 50kgs of bags, a very small car indeed, smaller than the "Smart". now imagine this car with a range of 200KM. would you buy it? at least for urban use?" 95% of them said. "Yes" like. why we need a V8 or an SUV for urban use and carring 4 people? if you don´t carry a heavy load or use for long trips you don´t need such vehicle. actually why do you need a 200HP car for urban/short trips use if you can have a 90HP car saving more fuel and doing the same thing? recently I noticed that USA is buying Ethanol from us, actually we have huge ships (tankers) with zillions of liters of Ethanol heading to USA. produce ethanol from sugar cane is 5 times cheaper than produce sugar from corn like US does. however We don´t see many gas stations offering Ethanol in US... perhaps we should see if we have the right car for or personal use... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 I'd be happy if we could get the baby step of having manufacturers actually bring the small diesels they sell in Europe/Asia here. Right now we pretty much have a choice of VW or.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedestroyerofworlds Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 It would be nice if these green technologies were truely green. Most hydrogen is not produce by simply using electrolysis of water, and if it was, a significant amount of the electricity isn't really green. As for bio-fuels, how much land is used that could be used to feed us. As well, how much rainforest is slashed and burn so sugar cane can grow for ethanol production. It's all well and good to get off the fossil fuel train, and some of these end products may provide a solution. The real prolem is how do we produce these end products in a big enough scale to power our energy needs, and do it in an environmentally sound way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tystick Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 It would be nice if these green technologies were truely green. Most hydrogen is not produce by simply using electrolysis of water, and if it was, a significant amount of the electricity isn't really green. As for bio-fuels, how much land is used that could be used to feed us. As well, how much rainforest is slashed and burn so sugar cane can grow for ethanol production. It's all well and good to get off the fossil fuel train, and some of these end products may provide a solution. The real prolem is how do we produce these end products in a big enough scale to power our energy needs, and do it in an environmentally sound way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
لني Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 We need to find a way to truly utilize solar energy, it can easily power the world. That's when we full green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Truculence Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Not necessarily. In order to harness the power of the sun you have to have massive amounts of solar cells. Black solar cells attracting heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouria Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Not necessarily. In order to harness the power of the sun you have to have massive amounts of solar cells. Black solar cells attracting heat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pouria Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 And? If you're concerned about global warming, solar cells have a couple of important benefits: 1. They don't spew CO2 into the atmosphere. 2. They absorb and convert into electricity the solar energy that would normally just be a part of the greenhouse effect. Any engine that relies on internal combustion or an expensive and energy-intensive fuel source is going to become obsolete or illegal. Electric vehicles are the future. Battery technology just needs some innovation and research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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