what are altrnatives to using fuel? Other energy sources... get creative?

Answer 1

I'll assume you mean gasoline rather than fuel.

The best alternative to relying completely on gasoline is currently hybrids. Soon both electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will be even better alternatives in terms of reducing both our reliance on fossil fuels and our greenhouse gas emissions.

Answer 2

Necessity will drive innovation and will result in the creation of alternative fuels. Hybrids are NOT the answer: the batteries they carry are a bigger environmental nightmare than the gas they would normally burn. And the energy needed to make ethanol out weights the benefits. No, what we need to do is to use up all the oil as fast as we can so we will be forced to find alternatives. Nuclear is fine for generating electricity but the wackos won't let us use it. Clean coal technology is up and coming and will certainly be a bright spot in the future. Solar is also coming along. As the costs come down, more and more people will use solar. And then the cost will come down even more. I'm excited by the recent discovery whereby you can split off burnable hydrogen from sea water using microwave bombardment. The day will come but it has to make economic sense first. Rushing to the new "flavor of the month" alternative energy source is NOT the answer!

Answer 3

For vehicles, I believe electric is the way to go, if we spent more money we can improve the electric battery. Right now there is a car made by "phoenix" Its a big vehicle not like the other smaller dinky electric cars. It has a 250 mile range and charges in 10 min.

As for energy there is a alot of alternatives. 1) wind generators 2) solar panels 3) Under water turbines (just like wind turbines but they are underwater and are powered by currents) 3) wave to energy converters.

The thing we need to do the most is conserve energy.

Answer 4

Energy content or BTU's and efficiency would have to be equivalent or greater than current options at a reasonable price, safety and availability. Coal dust engines have been experimented with. Adiabatic engines have been developed and tested. Many others as we search for the Holy Grail of transportation and personal freedom or else just have trains running everywhere. Cost per passenger mile is an important consideration though not as heralded as MPG nowadays. Energy needs to be stored and translated into power in some form or another. Read this latest developement in translating sea water into hydrogen with radio waves...could have lots of potential if energy input is less than energy output...
http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=node/1570

Answer 5

I also believe that Hydrogen
the most abundant form of energy in the Universe is likely to become the fuel of tomorrow

I don't know enough details about the salt water RF system but it is certainly an interesting phenomena

Electrolysis seems at the moment the easiest and cheapest way to release the abundant energy of hydrogen in H2O and convert it to HHO

Don't jump down my throat and say that you cannot burn water, of course to can't.
But you can burn the hydrogen in the water.

Hydrogen can be produced at home with a couple of solar cells and a very simple hydrogen generator

After setup costs the only expense is maintenance of the equipment
and when you burn Hydrogen it returns to water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj5twYOxJaY

Answer 6

The best and most cost effective renewable resource is wind energy for generating electricity.

Unfortunately some people object to the wind towers if they can see them from their homes.

For example there is a winds farm being proposed for Nantucket sound. Unfortunately this project is bogged down by lawsuits in the courts.

The wind towers are visible form the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. Both Senator Ted Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have filed lawsuits against the project for that reason.

If we can stop the lawsuits that interfere with many of the wind projects they will be a good source of electricity to cut down on the use of coal to produce electricity.

With electricity generated by wind power that makes electric cars much more attractive because now you are not just transferring the pollution from the car to the site of the power plant, you are really geting rid of the pollution.

People talk about using hydrogen from water. It takes about 30% more energy to produce hydrogen from water by electrolysis than you get back when you burn the hydrogen for fuel.

It makes more sense to store that electricity in a battery than to make hydrogen because storing the electrical energy in a battery is more efficient than producing hydrogen.

Hydrogen could be a good fuel to convert existing Internal Combustion engines to run on hydrogen rather than gasoline, but the long term solution would be to convert to electric cars because the electric cars are more efficient once you overcome the limitations of the batteries.
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Answer 7

During WWII, the Danes used charcoal to power their cars. Don't ask me how, but they converted a typical gas engine to use charcoal.

Answer 8

You could ride your bike.
Parking is a pain where I live so a lot of people ride their bikes to the grocery store and even to the bars and restaurants.

Answer 9

waste veggie oil in diesels.