muddysmind.com

PErsonally, I chose hydrogen. Why? Because it will work with the basic internal combustion engine with only minor modifications. It's similar to the way that nitrous oxide works, except nitrous oxide's primary function is to cool the incoming air to make it more dense and thereby push more air through the engine in a shorter amount of time and therefore make more power and torque.

The fact that it can be used has already been proven.

The other thing is that hydrogen is the most common element on the planet. So it's easy to get and very cheap. The car nuts (like myself) won't have to complain since we still get to do fun things to our cars, and the enviromentalists can't complain since it is clean combustion for the most part.

The bigg thing is that it would require special combeurators and fuel injection systems to be retrofitted to old cars. That's not a big deal. The other thing is that fuel tanks would have to be retrofitted for pressurized hydrogen. That's not all that complex either to be honest.

That said, I believe bio-diesel is the future of large trucks. It's cheap, smells like a fast food place at the tail pipe, it's clean, and it works.

Fast food places already have to fump all of their excess oil some place and waste disposal agencies get rid of it. With bio-diesel, the waste disposal places could filter it, and sell it as fuel, it is burned cleanly, and we lose the issue of where to put the waste, and we stop using fossil fuels.

The only issue left of the two is what to use for lubrication since internal combustion engines and diesel engines use refined crude oil for lubrication. However, there already exists synthetic lubricants, that are unfortunately more expensive (mostly since they are not widely used) that actually last longer and work better! So, that issue is solved.

I like all the options really, I just don't think electricity or solar power are efficient enough, especially for long trips, water I just don't see a future in, and hybrid engines force us to continue to use fossil fuels which is what we want to avoid. The other issue is that all of the other options (except natural gas) do not allow the engines to make enough power for things such as large trucks or buses to run off of them. And like it or not, the majority of businesses these days depend on tractor trailers in some ways.

Ok...I'll play along...But just for a minute.:-) Really, when you think about it, probably anything could work as "fuel" for cars as long as you have an automobile that is made to adjust and adequetly suport the material(s) being used. I, however, chose "bio-diesel". Why? To be honest now...I have no idea.:-P Actually, I mistook it for another process (for some reason that I'm *still* not sure of) that basically uses recyclable materials.

Who knows, maybe we'll be able to finally drill properly in Alaska and get the oil we need for more fuel. I just think because some environmentalists are too "touchy" about us drilling here or there (even though, I'm sure we can find a way to access the oil without completely disrupting the environment around us) that we are just going to have to look to other means.

However, I will say that as far as electrical cars being a choice, I don't think that would be a good idea. With the worlds population, we (at least *I* don't think so) wouldn't be able to rely on *more* energy to (that is if electrical cars became the standard) support that idea. I mean, with the grids failing (was it last year?) causing a black out in NY and parts of Ohio I think turning cars to electric would be putting more of a strain on an already faulty system.

Well, that's *my* 2cents...of course my 2 cents may be as worthless as a confederate bill but, you have it anyway.:-)

hydrogen will never be a legitmate fuel for the masses. the reason is it takes MORE engergy to produce hydrogen than you can get from it.

the real future for automobiles is some sort of a hybrid engine that uses gasonline, and some sort of a biomass or methanol/methane fuel.

engines can run on anything from water to frying oil from mcdonalds. in fact there are some cars from the early 1900s that ran on steam.

gasoline is simply the cheapest and most abundant source of enegery. at least for now. the future will be biomass, but untill oil gets more expensive you wont see anything being produced.

Actually there have been people that have successfully converted diesel and gas engines to run on nothing but water. However the big 3 tried to strong arm the guy into giving up his patents and stop converting cars. However he refused and was mysteriously murdered.
Thus why I say water since it's been done and proven.

"Thus why I say water..."

Ah...I thought that was you.:-)