Top Automotive Blogs

As a general practice when we talk about the variants offered in the newly launched vehicles names of only petrol, diesel and CNG variants hit our minds. But, going through the impacts of pollution generated by these vehicles most of the governments across the world are encouraging the use of electric vehicles and offering various incentives to the manufacturers. Although, due to lack of infrastructure the use of electric vehicles is not gaining the expected speed as the governments of the different countries want to achieve.

 

On the other side as we have to cater the problem of increasing pollution it is imperative that people should be made aware and encourage for the use of alternative fuel options which are helpful in controlling the levels of pollution to a huge extent.

 

Some of the available alternative fuel options are mentioned below:

 

Ethanol or ethyl alcohol: Developed from sugarcane or corn the ethanol has the highest energy density. It is said that 1.5 unit of ethanol is equivalent to 1 unit of gasoline as far as the density of energy is concerned. This type of alternative fuel is developed from the feedstock of sugar cane, grain, potatoes, barley, and bagasse. Countries like the United States of America, Brazil, and various European countries are making use of Ethanol as an alternative fuel.

 

Biodiesel: It is the renewable source of energy extracted from animal fat and veritable oils and then mixing them with chemical lipids. This type of fuel can be used on the diesel vehicles either separately or mixed with petroleum elements.

 

Compressed Air: This might surprise to most of the people, but compressed air has low energy density and there is a decline in the pressure of the air as it starts coming out from the tank. The motor that works for expanding the compressed air is used to divert the energy to mechanical energy either in a linear direction or rotational directions.

 

Hydrogen: There are two ways by which hydrogen can be used in vehicles. It can be either burned inside the internal combustion engine of the vehicle to empower the vehicle for moving ahead or can be mixed with oxygen in the fuel cell of the vehicle for running the electric vehicle. 

 

Apart, from the above-mentioned options, various companies are making use of CNG, electric batteries and mild hybrid technology for replacing the use of petrol and diesel to drive the vehicles.