I'd like to recommend to anyone interested in these topics these two items:

Book: The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg. Besides covering a variety of alternative fuels, he also talks a little bit about a society's "energy budget" which I found quite interesting. Also somewhat depressing; be warned that critics found the book too apocalyptic, but I thought it was realistic.

Movie: Who Killed the Electric Car? This movie made me madder than "Inconvenient Truth", because I knew all about global warming mechanisms, but not why I waited patiently for electric cars to arrive in my area, only to find they had inexplicably vanished. Great take on how auto makers, oil companies, and politicians can shoot themselves in the foot. Who knows what things would be like if electric cars had become as mainstream as hybrids appear to be getting now (with almost a 10-year lead)?

 

Make My Car E85 - Conversion Kits

They have conversion kits. I just really think america has to cut down on the fossil fuel intake because the world is obviously pretty screwed as it is. I would really like to see Al-Gore run again and win so he can prevent/ lengthen America's timespan. Because most of those presidents are worried about the war (which they should be), but I believe global warming and burning of fossil fuels is a huge one they really need to concentrate on. Every other day I am watching the news and seeing its getting worse and worse. First with antartica being full to capacity with C02, now hurricane season is going to last longer and have more large scale hurricanes, polar bears are dieing, something about bees not harvesting causing crops to die off, etc..

 

Posts originally split off from Is the fit a flexible-fuel vehicle? to keep that thread on-topic.

 

Fleisher-Tropsich conversion of coal to diesel. Runs about $40.00 a barrel to make. I do not know if it has problems with sulfur. We have plenty of coal and the same process can produce natural gas.

 

Plant more trees, seed the ocean with more algae. There ways to deal with the warming. BTW, has anybody seen the news that icecaps on mars are also receding? We must be changing the climate there too. And also lets not forget the little ice age. It has only been over for about 150 years. Don't get me wrong, I beleive the climate is changing and want to keep it the way it is. I just don't know how much if it is us and how much is cyclical.

 

maybe its leading up to the end of the world, at 2012 then the north and south poles are suppose to go all out of wack according to the mayans. Like was said earlier, the government should have just produced eletric cars when they knew about this back in 96/97 I think.

 

I think this gas crisis, if it is that, is good for probably one reason alone. It will get more people interested and thinking about new ideas that could change our situation in fuels and the environment. The problem I see is that we jumped on the very first feasable idea (ethanol) and put all our eggs into one basket before we realized the problems.

I was watching the news today and it mentioned that the Indy 500 has several ethanol fuel cars racing. Now that Honda is all the engines in indy racing, it looks like Honda will have bio-fuel cars as well. They will make them here, but I doubt this E-85 idea would be large in Japan, maybe rice bio-fuels.

 

I saw they were testing flexible-fuel fits in Brazil or something down there. That was in 06, so that is why I was hoping the newer models would be. Their is also a guy on ephatch that is built and boosted running on E85, sapose to increase hp somewhere around 9-10%.

 

Has anybody looked into what corn has done to these animals? As well as the people who eat them. If you knew more about corn you wouldn't mind wasting it in your car. The only way to extract most nutrition from it is ground into fine powder. Ever wonder why it shows itself agian when you deficate? That layer that surrounds the kernel is like plastic. Think about the stuff that gets stuck in your teeth after popcorn. Same thing in your colon.

 

Just imagine if everybody drove a Honda Fit LOL, Then we wouldn't need to worry about using alternative energy Best of both worlds!!

I drove an gas guzzling SUV with tons of extra's. When I finally decided to maybe downsize and get something a little more eco-friendly as my daily driver I choose the Fit. I was blown away by how cheap this thing is to run, I fill up only once every 3 weeks now... before I was filling up every 2 weeks and with more than TWICE as much fuel. Unreal!

Anyway, I did my part! Hopefully I saved a seagull or something

 

Recent studies indicate that E85 will pollute more than gasoline. Its time to say goodbye, not to fuels, but to Internal Combustion Engines(ICEs). Electric engines are 4 times more efficient than ICEs, centralized production of electricity by ANY MEANS is less polluting than ICEs, & electrical delivery to your home is more efficient than delivering gas to the gas stations. With 3 or 4 methods by which we will raise energy density storage in batteries or capacitors in the next 4 years, the time of ICE is coming to an end. We will soon say how could we allow the carcinogenic pollution of ICEs near humans(much less our kids). We will also say how could we put up with clunking ICEs when electric motors are so smooth & smoothly transporting. Soon we will no longer associate ICE noise, vibration & shaking with performance. Tesla electric cars have already proven that ICE is not performance but just noisy waste.

 

link to article stating that? electric cars use fossil fuels also, the electric companies burn oil/coal .. ect to provide electricity. I think some kind of biofuel would be more beneficial. Unless they can make a eletric car that can regenerate itself

 

That's Fischer-Tropsch. And unfortunately it's a very dirty process.

Fischer-Tropsch process - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If oil ever does reach $100+ bbl, we would probably need to start using Fischer-Tropsch or the Bergius process to make feedstocks for plastics, pharmaceuticals, and so forth. Right now, F-T is used in a very limited number of applications.

 

what is the price her barrel now?

 

Its like 66 or something close. That is $10 a barrel less than last year, but we are paying more than we ever had when it was 70 something!

 

thats some b/s

 

dank24...My Washington State produces equivalent electric energy power to gas engines with only 4% of the pollution of Internal Combustion Engines(ICE). I hate coal, but even centralized coal fired electric energy production is less polluting than individual ICE (any centralized energy production is better than individual energy sources), & those coal fired production centers are not in the middle of cities killing kids w/pollution like ICEs are.

Transfer of electric power through power lines is more efficient than the transfer to gas stations of gas via tanker trucks.

Electric motors are 4 times more efficient than ICE.

Chuck bio-fuels which is an idea to extend the live of ICE.

Long live electric engines once electric energy density storage is improved. May ICE soon die...& kids live.

P.S....E85 pollutions study by Prof. Mark Jacobsen. Details for April 18, 2007 on Green Car Congress.

 

Myself. I'm waiting for the FCX to go nation wide. Or, purchase a SMART car. I've only a short commute. I don't need all the room of a FIT. But, I'll keep it. If only to haul the kids around.

 

Could hydrogen be used in an "ICE" ? Thought I'd throw that one out there.

 

A past professor (whom taught History 333 at Ohio University, Oil and Politics class) had the "pleasure" of being around a lot of these converted vehicles during WWII when he was a "guest worker" for the Germans. He said the exhaust emissions were sickening.

NO ONE in the ethanol industry (which is another way to throw taxpayer money at the farmers....get real!) discusses:

Improving the CAFE or overall FE.

Public Transport.

That should tell you something of what is behind this drivel. Anyone that thinks putting corn in your car will save the world should do some homework.

BTW, did everyone here know that a Prius can go 100 mph???? Apparently that was not the only "green" activity of the car:

JustOneMinute: Al Gore III And His Prius