What are some alternatives to using gas and oil, especially in cars?

Answer 1

Biodiesel, electric, natural gas (although that is sorta gas, of course!), hydrogen fuel cells, ethanol, methanol.

Answer 2

Synthetic oils are in common use for lubrication. Some of these are a combination of petroleum oil, and synthetics, some are true synthetics. As for fuel. Henry Ford started his horseless carriage out on good old alcohol. Gasoline won out because it was plentiful. You can use alcohol, methane, hydrogen, propane, bio-diesel, producer gas which is a gassification process where a solid fuel is burned to produce usable fuel gasses, or convert to steam. Don't knock the idea of steam, it has been shown to be practical, and has fewer emissions than a gas engine. The steam engine would use a liquid fuel. For renewable fuels, use methane, bio-diesel, or alcohol. Oil, by the way, can be produced by the hydraulic compression of garbage. It has been done. A ton of garbage produces about 1 barrel of oil. There are many plants whose sap is chemically similar to oil, from which liquid fuels similar to gasoline could be distilled. The studies done by Mother Earth News in the late 1970's to early 1980's explored the use of plants as a source of "oil" for motor fuels.

Answer 3

Right now it's biofuels, ethanol and biodiesel. They help oil dpendence a fair amount and global warming a little. There's a few electrics and many hybrids..

The obvious long term answer is using nuclear power plants to make hydrogen from water, and running cars on hydrogen-air fuel cells, The technology and infrastructure needs some work, but we can do it.

Answer 4

Increasing costs of oil-based fuels and tightening environmental laws with the possibility of further restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions are propelling work on alternative power systems for automobiles.

Many diesel-powered cars can run with little or no modifications on 100% pure biodiesel. The main benefit of Diesel combustion engines is its 50% fuel burn efficiency compared with 23% in the best gasoline engines. Most modern gasoline engines are capable of running with up to 15% ethanol mixed into the gasoline fuel - older vehicles may have seals and hoses that could be harmed by ethanol. With a small amount of redesign, gasoline-powered vehicles can run on ethanol concentrations as high as 85%. 100% ethanol is used in some parts of the world using vehicles that must be started on pure gasoline and switched over to ethanol once the engine is running. Most gasoline fuelled cars can also run on LPG with the addition of an LPG tank for fuel storage and carburation modifications to add an LPG mixer. LPG produces fewer toxic emissions and is a popular fuel for fork lift trucks that have to operate inside buildings.

Current research and development is centered on "hybrid" vehicles that use both electric power and internal combustion. Research into alternative forms of power also focus on developing fuel cells, Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI), and even using the stored energy of compressed air or liquid nitrogen.

Alternative forms of combustion such as Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) are starting to appear in production vehicles. GDI is employed in the 2007 BMW MINI.

Answer 5

Why do u want another fuel??? It does not do any thing when u produce CO2 . Mother nature has set up a special recycle system with plants. Look it up by going to the Webb and looking at photosynthesis.

Answer 6

propane... natural gas... we have many companies coming up with hybrid cars..