I know that in some areas in the midwest, the methane that is given off from landfills is being used as energy to power the factories at the landfill. If we stored all the methane given off from our landfills, do you think we could use it as an efficent fuel? And if so, why do you think we aren't using it now?
2007-10-02 10:02:11 · 12 answers · asked by :) 4 in Environment ➔ Alternative Fuel Vehicles
It can, and I'm sure it has, but it's hard to use it as fuel for a car if you can only get it at a few places. If you can't buy it on every street corner, you can't go very far with that car. And manufacturers won't make cars that use it if there's no place to buy fuel. It's a catch-22 situation.
2007-10-02 10:06:33 · answer #1 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Yes. Natural gas is mostly methane and there are already cars on the road that can run on natural gas. Those could run on pure methane I would think. But a better use for the gas coming off old land fills is for electricity generation. My brother once worked at an electric generating station built on an old landfill. It used gas collected from a network of pipes in the upper layer of the old land fill to run a gas turbine to turn a generator. There are many such plants in the U.S.
2007-10-02 10:45:28 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 5⤊ 0⤋
Already being done, it's called compressed natural gas (CNG). Landfill gas is about 50% methane and 50% carbon dioxide. It will burn in this state but produces a very low level of energy. The methane can be purified using fairly simple technology.
2007-10-02 12:49:17 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
In incredibly easy words: once you employ Methane as a gasoline it produces Carbon Dioxide, e.g, greenhouse gases. once you employ Hydrogen as a gasoline it produces basically water. So finding at purely THE vehicle it produces much less pollution and no greenhouse gases. the difficulty is that there is not any organic source of Hydrogen. Hydrogen ought to basically be appeared at as a storage technique for portable power. generating Hydrogen takes countless power -- often electricity produced with the aid of burning coal. Assuming we are able to replace coal fired electric flowers with some sort of non-polluting renewable power then we could have a stable non-polluting equipment.
2016-11-07 01:57:19 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Diesel cars can be easily modified to work on methane. Methane is also much cleaner fuel as it produces less CO2 than other carbohydrates.
Chris G: There are cars running on methane and they do wreck and they don't leave craters with no survivors.
2007-10-02 10:12:24 · answer #5 · answered by Aleks 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A lot of things can be used to fuel cars, it just comes down to efficiency and how plausible is it. How do you think an 80mph wreck would look on a car running with methan? It would create a crater the size of a house, and no survivors.
So it really comes down to gasoline being the easiest to produce, cheapest, not as flamable as methane, more "bang" for your buck, etc.
Hybrids right now look like the standard way to go with fuel efficiency tho.
2007-10-02 10:11:37 · answer #6 · answered by Crizzle Gizzle 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Yes, I do think its possible for methaine conversion but, like anything else that might hurt the big oil companies you know that they will put a stop to it. Its all about money & greed. I have a friend that just bought a farm that has a natural gas well on it. He is hooked up on it to heat his house & cook with but, even though its on his property he cannot bottle & sell it!!! He found out that even though it is on his property that the gas company has the exclusive right to take his property over if he sells his own gas!!
2007-10-05 07:41:21 · answer #7 · answered by jack_black_91 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's used quite widely in New Zealand.
Most other countries have methane powered buses too.
2007-10-02 13:09:05 · answer #8 · answered by bestonnet_00 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
methane is natural gas. There are already cars and trucks and buses that run on natural gas. Look for the diamond shape symbol on the bumper and see that it says "natural gas powered". If you're in southern california, look!
2007-10-05 06:54:57 · answer #9 · answered by giskard 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If methane can be used, I am about to become independently wealthy!!! I seem to have an unlimited supply, and up to this point in my life, it hasn't made a dime for me!
;-)
2007-10-02 12:21:21 · answer #10 · answered by bob_ber_down 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋