Thursday, February 22, 2007

Alternatives at the pump?

Reading the articles that we’ve been discussing in class inspired me to look at some resources online concerning alternative fuels. In this day and age, as the crude oil prices around the world are in constant turmoil, many chemists have been looking for alternative energy technologies. During my “chick-fil-a” night, I met a team of campers who claimed they used used cooking oil to power their bus. At first, I was skeptical about their claims so I looked up more information on using recycled cooking products as fuel. What I found was pretty interesting.

Many researchers working in this field say that oils derived form soybeans, corn, and other vegetables provide a cleaner and renewable alternative to petroleum-based products. Vegetable-derived oils are biodegradable, and when used as fuel, they produce close to 100% less greenhouse gases than petroleum-based oils. Furthermore, the availability of these oils will never be questioned. At least one car manufacturer, Ford, has tried to make use of such oils in their automobiles. According to them, when these oils are used as motor oil, gas mileage increases by at least 3% and emission ratings decrease by 75%. So one may ask the question as to why aren’t these fuels being used more in today’s industry. A major problem with using biodegradable fuels is their instability at both high and low temperatures. Unlike the fuels we use now, vegetable-based products break down too easily at high temperatures, and solidify too easily at cold temperatures; these are the temperatures that are of crucial importance to an engine. Additionally, the cost to manufacture such oils to safe production levels is still very high.

It’s definitely going to be some time before we begin seeing alternative fuels being used on the road. Gas-electric hybrid cars are receiving some popularity, but their cost efficiency has been an issue. Certainly, the conflict overseas and our diminishing oil reserves are putting a stretch on traditional gas availability. Soybean oil may be the answer to our energy crisis. It would be interesting to see if advances in this field are made sometime during the next decade.

4 comments:

Mrinal Shukla said...

I understand that the temperatures of the vegetable oils have to be controlled and I also have a possible solution for the cold temperatures. Cold temperatures are brought upon by the changing external temperatures so one can design a gas tank with material that is a good insulator, which can be a simple installation to the car. One hurdle down, however, I have no ideas for hot temperatures. Is there a reference article you used for this topic?

Kajal Patel said...

I was there for the "chik-fil-a" night and I didn't believe it at first. These people went from state to state driving a bus that ran on vegetable oils. In a show that I watched on discovery channel, its not as uncommon as we think. 2 friends modified their car that ran on diesel to a car that ran on vegetable oil. When they described it, they started the car on diesel and switched the oil supply. It was pretty impressive since these were just ordinary people, not scientists/engineers.

Ernest Kim said...

Theoretically runing a vehicle with the vegetable oils works but I can't still belive people actually ran a bus with vegetable oils. That bus must have gotten some damage on the gas tank after the trip.

Kunal said...

I never realized that people could actually drive a car using vegetable oil. I wonder if in the future car manufacturers will install a computerized device that will monitor the temperature of the engine and switch from vegetable oil to gasoline when temperatures become too high or too low.