what is the least polluting way of running a car?

Question

Electric? Bio-fuel? Hybrid?

Answer 1

electric

electric motors are far more efficient at delivering motive force than infernal combustion engine (ice), better torque, regenerative braking, 0 consumption when stationary, no warm-up required. It is also a much more pleasent driving experience, quiet, smooth & smell free. £0 road tax; £0 congestion charge; free parking & recharging in some cities. Electric cars are much simpler than ice so cheaper to maintain, eg no complex gearbox, cooling or exaust system.
But don't expect to hear about any of these incredible cars that can out perform a ferrari, and meet 90% of our personal transport requirements without polluting or using unsustainable resourses in the UK fossil headed and global corporation beholden media

the energy convertion from primary fuel is far more efficient in large generators than small ice because of the laws thermodynamics and the generators are running at optimum temperature & load, constantly monitored and maintained, and can use unrefined fuel near to source and a very efficent delivery re-fueling system right to where you park your car. You can even put solar pannes/wind generator on your garage; Tesla motors recon $30,000 of solar pannels would be enough for most of our motoring needs.


Pure electric cars will do >250miles per charge; but if you need to go further without a 60minute break, then it is possible to tow a small generator when required; see the tZero. Otherwise a hybrid is just extra weight to cart around and dependency on petrol stations.

bio-fuel will mean choosing between feeding and clothing an increasing world population or the privileged few driving. Plus most bio-fuels currently require lots of non-renewable agro-chemical inputs and processing. (henry ford used hemp oil, which can be grown organically but is banned in the US, probably because it would upset the oil industry). Similar argument applies to animal powered, eg horse, transport, they require a lot of fodder and maintenance for the work they deliver.

Answer 2

Any internal combustion engine is going to produce the pollutant NOX as part of the process no matter what the fuel. We can limit this with a more costly exhaust system. There are many different ICE types such as those using different valve configurations or 6 cycle engines but these increase complexity to an already complex engine. Another approach is to use external combustion to run a quasi-turbine. (a kind of flash boiler steam engine.) Jay Leno has steam engine vehicles made in the 20's and '30s that pass present pollution standards. A modern steam quasi turbine like the Brash engine being studied at the University of Connecticut would be even cleaner. But the cleanest engines don't use conventional fuel or combustion. These are compressed air engines and electric motors. When we are strictly speaking about the car these are zero emission vehicles. If the original source of power is also a renewable clean energy like wind or solar then the entire system is much cleaner. Electric motors can be over 90% efficient with some solar vehicles reaching close to 98% efficiency. (compared to 15% efficiency overall for the typical car)

Answer 3

Forget about refining hydrogen into a useable fuel. It is just not practical. Electric vehicles recharged from renewable energy sources like solar are the best answer to our transportation needs, yet this may never happen, at least when there's still oil to be sold at $250/barrel in 50 years. The best we may see in our lifetimes is plug-in Hybrids with Lithium-Ion battery packs that let us do 90% of our driving on electricity derived from clean-er coal fired plants.

Answer 4

The least polluting way of running a car is either battery-electric or a fuel cell, when you have wind or solar powered electricity (as long as all your H2 for the fuel cell comes from the clean energy).

Maybe that new hydrogen burning internal combustion engine from BMW is worth something too, I don't know much about it, except that it really, really matters where you get your hydrogen from.

Answer 5

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Nothing beats the electric car because of the high efficiency of electric technology.
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Electric motors are 95% efficient. Battery storage is 88% efficient. And the electric grid is 95% efficient. By contrast, internal combustion engines are only 25% efficient, and that efficiency is further reduced by energy lost to engine idling and braking. (EVs don't idle, and they recover braking energy.)
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In fact, the electric car is the only vehicle that fuels by wire, at 95% efficiency. Gasoline and other fuels must be delivered by inefficient and polluting trucks to thousands of service stations.
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Higher efficiency means that more miles can be travelled on less fuel, hence less pollution generated - even when dirty fuel (like coal) is burned in power plants.
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EVs are not only clean, they can be very inexpensive to operate. Electricity costs are only about a penny per mile, compared with at least ten cents per mile for gasoline. See this page:
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http://www.squidoo.com/cheap-electric-car/
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Answer 6

Forget electric/hybrid/hydrogen/fuel cells because the overall carbon and energy cost is higher than just fuelling your car as every time you change one sort of energy to another you lose efficiency. The exception could be if you were going to make hydrogey from water using electriciy from wind/solar power. At the moment, probably recycled cooking oil is the way to go

Answer 7

The foot propelled stone version

Mr F Flinstone

Answer 8

consider a car,see on top of it ,there y cant we fit solar panels .adjustment should be so that extra storage of solar energy is possible so during night could be used .if we can cook food,run mill,y cant we run car.

Answer 9

Take the bus or the train :-)
For no pollution you could cycle or walk!

Answer 10

Get a horse to tow it. You can put the manure on your roses or rhubarb.