fossil fuels
...ctricity used to run a vehicle. While the electricity production process for vehicles may contribute somewhat to air pollution, an electric vehicle (EV) itself does not, resulting in much lower emissions per mile traveled. In 2000, close to 7,600 on-road EVs in the United States consumed electricity at an amount equivalent to about 1.7 million gallons of gasoline. Hydrogen Hydrogen is a simple, abundant element found in organic matter, notably in the hydrocarbons that make up many of our fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas, methanol, and propane. As an energy carrier like electricity (not an energy source), it must be manufactured. Hydrogen can be made by using heat to separate it from the hydrocarbons. Currently, most hydrogen is made this way from natural gas. Hydrogen can be combined with gasoline, ethanol, methanol, or natural gas to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. Because the only byproduct of hydrogen is water, only the engine lubricants from a hydrogen-fueled vehicle emit small amounts of air pollutants. Hydrogen is already the fuel of choice for propelling space shuttles. It is also being explored for use in internal combustion engines. Although hydrogen can be burned in an internal combustion engine, or serve as a fuel additive, there's more interest in using hydrogen to supply fuel cells that power EVs (see "Fuel Cell Vehicle" below.) P-Series P-Series is a relatively new alternative fuel. It is a blend of ethanol, methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF), and pentanes, with butane added for blends used in severe cold weather. Because both the ethanol and the MTHF can be produced from renewable biomass resources, emissions from producing and using P-Series are substantially less than those from gasoline. P-Series was initially designed as a fuel to help fleets meet the U.S. Energy Policy Act's requirement to purchase more AFVs. Therefore, P-Series will initially be sold to fleets. Eventually it will be available to the general public too. Fuel Cell Vehicle The fuel cell is one of the hottest advanced vehicle technologies. Many researchers expect this technology to be used in vehicles by 2010. Fuel cells, which convert hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, have been researched for use in vehicles for many years, and their development and performance have progressed. Because they produce only water vapor as emissions, fuel cells are ideal power sources for transportation. They can be used as the main power for an electric vehicle, or in conjunction with an internal combustion engine in a hybrid vehicle. Fuel cells convert the chemical energy of a fuel into usable electricity and heat without combustion as an intermediate step. Fuel cells are similar to batteries in that they produce a direct current by means of an electrochemical process. Unlike batteries, however, they store their reactants (hydrogen and oxygen) externally and operate continuously as long as they are supplied with these reactants. Today, researchers are working on making fuel cell components—considering their size, weight, and cost—competitive with internal combustion engines. Although researchers still have several obstacles to overcome, fuel-cell technology has the potential to provide us with another energy-efficient, cost-competitive transportation option that will help lower emissions and reduce dependence on petroleum. Sitting atop the mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland is a nation quite literally being torn in two. The eastern half of the island is being pulled along with the North American tectonic plate, the other half is slowly being carried east, with Europe. The volcanoes that dot the island nation are the most visible, lingering impact of the massive forces underground. In recent decades, Iceland has put those forces to work, tapping geothermal energy for heat to service 80 percent of the island's buildings. Along with hydropower, the cauldron of energy underground also provides much of Iceland's electricity. That still leaves the tiny, sparsely-populated nation dependent on petroleum imports, most of that fossil fuel used for its vast fishing fleets, as well as a car park that is, per capita, second only to the United States. That dependence on oil may soon be coming to an end, however. Iceland has laid out an ambitious plan that could transform it into the world's first "hydrogen economy," says President Olaf Ragmar Grimsson. "We are making Iceland a kind of trial base to see what we can develop for our entire (global) society." The project is not the fantasy of a Scandinavian socialist government. While it has the strong support of the Icelandic legislature, the hydrogen program is being funded and directed by a consortium that includes the German automaker, DaimlerChrysler, Dutch-based Shell Oil, and the Norwegian energy giant, Norsk Hydro. "My company has a 40-year schedule to change Iceland into a hydrogen society," explains Jan Bjorn Skulason, general manager of Icelandic New Energy. Actually, the partners have really only mapped out specific plans for the next five or six years. The first step will be devoted to education and infrastructure. There are production and distribution centers to be set up. Between 2002 and 2004, DaimlerChrysler will put three fuel cell-powered urban buses into operation. Fuel cells combine gaseous hydrogen and oxygen to produce water vapor-and current, which can be used to power a vehicle's electric motor. By 2006, the demonstration program will be expanded to personal vehicles and "maybe a small fishing vessel," says Skulason. If the demo phases go off according to plan-and if cost-effective fuel cells are then available-the industry-government partnership will then set out to make hydrogen a viable mass-market alternative for the whole of Iceland. The choice of the island nation makes sense when you consider the various ways in which hydrogen can be produced. It can be generated through a variety of chemical reactions, such as reforming oil, natural gas or methanol. But the cleanest and most energy-efficient approach is to electrolyze water, splitting it into two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Sitting in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Iceland has access to plenty of water, as well as a vast and largely still-untapped supply of energy to use in electrolysis. "To power all the vehicles and all the ships in Iceland would only require eight to nine percent of the total renewable energy sources in Iceland," notes Skulason. Currently, about 15 percent of those hydro and geothermal resources are being tapped. So, even with a complete conversion to hydrogen, less than a quarter of Iceland's available energy resources would be utilized. "This means we could export a fair amount of hydrogen." That, Skulason quickly adds, is "not on the agenda right now." And for good reason. While there are still plenty of challenges left to overcome, most experts believe it's only a matter of time before the fuel cell is ready for a mass market. Most of the world's automakers have laid out ambitious plans for introducing the clean power source, perhaps as early as 2004, in many major markets. Meanwhile, with enough energy available, it should be a snap to generate abundant supplies of hydrogen gas. Distribution is a bit trickier, and Icelandic New Energy's current strategy calls for the gas to be generated at the point of sale, rather than at central refineries, as is the norm with petroleum. The real challenge is one of storage. In compressed gaseous form, a vehicle would have to give up significant amounts of trunk or passenger space for tanks, or accept far less range than today's petrol-powered automobiles. Liquid hydrogen is denser, but far more difficult to store, especially over long periods. New Energy planners are crossing their fingers and hoping for the development of so-called "solid hydrogen" storage, such as metal hydrides or carbon nanotubes, which could yield vehicle range comparable to today's vehicles. "We have to solve the hydrogen storage problem" before the dream of a hydrogen economy can become real, Skulason admits. But the solution does not need to come overnight. Iceland's energy goals are scheduled for a 40-year phase-in, and that yields plenty of time for invention. Hybrid vehicles are available on the market today, at the time of writing the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight are available in many countries, and the Honda Civic Hybrid Vehicle will come out during the next few months. The Toyoto Prius is manufactured at a volume of about 2000 cars per month, and the company recently announced that it is now breaking even on the production of these cars. The cost of hybrid vehicles is about US $ 6000 more than comparable conventional vehicles, and their fuel economy is about twice that of conventional cars. Their emissions meet the second strictest regulations in existence (ULEV – Ultra Low Emission Vehicle), the strictest are the so-called zero emission vehicles (ZEV's). The extra cost of an electric motor and battery in a hybrid vehicle make sense because the internal combustion engine in a conventional car is very energy inefficient. Less than 20 % of the energy of gasoline is actually used to drive the wheels of the car, most of the rest is wasted in one way or another. In a conventional car, the engine is much more powerful than required to drive the car at a constant speed of say, 100 km/hr because the extra power is needed for accelerating the car in a reasonable time. Except when accelerating, this power is not really used, and most of the time the engine operates inefficiently far below its capacity. The main losses of energy occur when the car is idling, when the car is braking, and when the car is driving at low speeds. In a hybrid car, the electric motor assists in the acceleration, and this allows for a smaller and more efficient internal combustion engine. In addition, the engine does not idle, it is stopped when the car is standing still, and immediately started when required. Furthermore, the electric motor acts in reverse as a generator when the car is braking, and this recovers the braking energy and feeds it into the battery. When the car is driving at low speeds, it often uses only the electric motor which has an efficiency of the order of 90%. When the car is driving at medium or high speeds, the internal combustion engine will operate at its most energy efficient point, and produce more power than is needed by the car at that moment. The extra energy is fed into the battery, to be used later when required. In a series hybrid vehicle the internal combustion engine is not connected to the wheels of the car, it is used only to generate electricity which powers the electric motor and is also fed into the battery at times when the car does not need all the energy produced. This internal combustion engine only needs to produce the average amount of power required by the car, it is much smaller than the one in a conventional car, and it usually operates at its most efficient point and at constant speed. In a 'plug-in' or 'charge-depleting' hybrid vehicle, the car battery can be charged from the electricity net, and this electricity can then be used for all or part of the next trip that the car makes. For plug-in hybrid vehicles, the distance that the car can drive on the stored electricity in the battery varies widely from model to model, anywhere from less than 20 kms up to 80 kms. The outlook for hybrid vehicles is very positive for a variety of reasons. The hybrid vehicle can easily be designed to equal or surpass the performance of conventional cars, and they can meet or exceed customer expectations. The extra cost of the car, currently about $ 6000, can be substantially reduced as manufacturing experience is acquired for the batteries, which currently cost about $ 3000, and for the other components. In countries with relatively high gasoline prices, the savings in gasoline costs currently pay back the extra purchase costs of the car in about 10 years. As manufacturing volumes increase, this pay-back period could be reduced to 4 or 5 years, and consumers would have an economic incentive to buy hybrid vehicles. For all these reasons, some of the major motor manufacturers stron...