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Car manufacturers race to find alternative fuel sources

 

Ten years ago, when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London, he announced plans to utilise body heat from UK subways to heat British houses. While Johnson’s idea was unrelated to cars, two-thirds of the energy generated by petrol or diesel is wasted as heat. Thermoelectric technology, which converts heat into electricity, is just one of the many ideas car manufacturers are experimenting with, as the world strives to achieve net zero carbon emissions. 

 

Some ideas, at first glance, are really ‘out there’, such as those who claim that beer was the inspiration to produce the ethanol generated by fermenting sugars.  Then, there was the idea that the waste products created from – wait for it – the chocolate making process, can serve as a potential alternative fuel.  In 2009, the University of Warwick tested this out by fuelling a Formula 3 race car by using the waste products created from the chocolate making process (and steered by carrots!). Some have even mooted the idea of recycling human waste, which produces tons of methane that can be used as a credible power source.

 

And while it is true that some of the most successful inventions have come out of creative minds, when it comes to alternative fuel sources there are currently only a few that are considered financially viable and practical. Let’s look at four of the leading alternative fuels that are powering vehicles today.

 

Electricity

 

Electric vehicles (EVs)– either as pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) – have emerged as the unqualified front-runner of all alternative sources to power cars. 

Many manufacturers have entered the electric car market and are starting to gain ground on the undisputed market leader, Tesla.  While the original electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf, had a range of 100km, today, as batteries have become more powerful and less expensive, this is becoming much less of a problem. The vehicle with the furthest range in 2023 is the Air Grand Touring from Lucid Motors in California, which is billed at reaching 830km before needing to power-up. 

EVs will make up about half of new car sales worldwide by 2035, according to Goldman Sachs Research.

 

LPG 

 

Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) has been available commercially for a number of years. Also known as autogas, LPG is a mix of propane and butane, and its use reduces CO2 exhaust emissions by around 15% compared to petrol. Globally, it is the third most popular automotive fuel, used in around 16m passenger cars (just under 3% of the total market).

 

Hydrogen

 

Hydrogen cars are powered by an electric motor and are therefore classified as electric cars. The common abbreviation is FCEV, short for “Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle”. Although in its relative infancy, the use of hydrogen fuel cells to power vehicles is considered extremely promising and many major automakers – Toyota, Honda and Hyundai in particular – are investing heavily in it. Many consider hydrogen to be one of the best longer-term energy sources for cars, as it produces zero emissions and overcomes the limitations of onboard batteries.  Currently, however, fuel cell technology remains too expensive to be rolled out widely.

 

Biofuel 

 

Biofuels are renewable fuels that can be mixed with petrol or diesel to create a lower-cost method of reducing CO2 emissions from vehicles. Some London buses are now fuelled by biofuel made from the city's used coffee grounds in an initiative with Bio-bean and Shell. Biodiesel – a blend of diesel and vegetable oil – is in common use and can often be used without having to modify vehicles. 

 

There are other exciting developments already coming to the fore, such as solar panel car roofs and even solar paint; and compressed air, which can replace petrol in a combustion engine to drive the pistons and produce power.  

Will oil and petrol ever be totally phased out from vehicles, as predicted?  Time will tell, but the world is certainly accelerating towards that ambitious goal.