Earth Day :: Green Fuel, Vehicles, etc.

So since it's Earth Day I should probably write something insightful about being green. I don't have anything earth shattering but I'll try to touch on a couple things and pound home a few points I've addressed before.

First... ethanol is not the answer! E-15, E-85, E-100... they're all bunk. The basic problem is that according to some studies ethanol actually requires the use of more fossil fuels throughout the production of it than is derived from the end product. Thereby having a net negative production value. In addition to this startling fact is that since most ethanol is made from typical food sources the elimination of this food for the purpose of fuel can and is driving up the cost and availability of said food. As I type this a world food shortage is burgeoning as the prices of grains skyrocket, largely due to the production of ethanol.

Second... mild-hybrids (i.e. Toyota Prius) are not the answer! Maybe people have forgotten that these things use batteries or something. You mean to tell me that Hybrid Synergy Drive has something to do with massive batteries?! Crazy! Well, it's true and the environmental impact from producing the nickel needed for those batteries is quite astounding. In addition to that those batteries, given current technologies, will one-day fail to work as well as they do on day 1 and eventually need to be completely replace, and, GASP, disposed of by means of recycling or other.

Third... plug-in hybrids may not be the answer! So you're telling me I just put this here plug into the wall and then my car will run?! Awesome! Oh, but wait, where's the power from the wall come from? For places like British Columbia that relies primarily on Hydro Electricity taking the energy for your car from "the wall" isn't so bad a transfer, but consider areas like Texas which rely largely on Coal Powered Electrical generation transferring the burden from one fossil fuel to another, that doesn't necessarily burn any cleaner isn't exactly a great solution. Not to mention the rise in your monthly energy bill which hasn't really been a point mentioned much by the auto industry. Hmmmm. And of course with this 'solution' much like that of plug-in hybrids there's still the issues of creating and eventually recycling the batteries.

So what is the answer?! Great question... wish I knew the answer. One thing that is showing some promise though is that of the creation of diesel from nature. And in this case when I speak of creation I'm not simply referring to drilling for fuel from the ground. Two possible options (at least in the mean time) are diesel from trees and diesel from algae.

The diesel tree is something quite awesome. Much like maple syrup farmers in Quebec tap the Maple trees farmers in some of the more tropical regions of the world are tapping the Copaifera langsdorfi tree, a native of Brazil. An acre of these wonder trees can yield approx. 1250 gallons of fuel per year with virtually no further refinement needed to fuel a vehicle. The bad news is that the trees take a good 15 years to mature and they won't exactly thrive in Canada.

A more recent alternative that's still in its early stages has to do with ethanol created from a algae. The result could be more than 100,000 gallons of fuel per acre! There are still kinks to be worked out, but this certainly could be a great answer, at least to the creation of fuels. Work still needs to be done though to extend the range of vehicles.

The fuel efficiency of vehicles measured in miles per gallon has changed very little over the last 100 years. There is some explanation for this in terms of increases in safety equipment and requirements and the resulting increase in vehicle weight but the fact remains that we can do better.