Will fuel substitutes be as efficient as the gasoline we use today?

Question

With the development of ethanol for use in automobiles as a substitute for the fossil fuel gasoline we've been using, clearly there will be other gasoline substitutes as well.

But as we all know, electric cars don't perform as well (speedwise) as gasoline-run cars. My main concern is.. how much mileage will we get off ethanol or other gasoline replacements? Will they be as good, better, or worse?

Answer 1

no

Answer 2

depends how you define efficient.

if you include the energy required to generate the fuel, then ethanol isn't more effecient.

electric cars actually perform better speed wise, an electric motor is much more efficient than a combustion engine. it's just that there are no good means to store the electricity in the car. energy/weight ratio is poor.

diesel engines are actually much more effecient than gasoline engines, requires less refining and gets better mileage.

if you remove economic and evironmental aspects, efficiency is about energy/weight ratio.

Answer 3

That's a complex question. Brazil and Colombia use ethanol, and its price has soared to $5 a gallon recently, more than unleaded gas. And it's just as efficient, but not more efficient. It's cleaner for the environment, but if we have to plow the rain forests to create huge corn crops, then that defeats the purpose environmentally.

Answer 4

will cost abotu as much as gas does now it will jsut cost even more to get the companys that make it and the cars that run it out. it wont be any cheaper then right now but it wont get any mreo exspencive then it is. Takes twice as much ethanol to go as far as gas but its also half the price if its widely developed so it comes to the same.

Answer 5

no, the one i'm thinking of will be a thousand times better!