Green Car Technologies

	Hybrid Cars | Hybrid Vs Electric | Environmental And Economical Impacts		Natural Gas | Working | Advantages | Disadvantages
	Electric Cars | Working | Electric Vs Gasoline		Plug In Hybrids | Latest Plugin Vehicle | PHEV Vs HEV
	Ethanol As Fuel | Vehicles Running On Ethanol		Air Powered cars | Working | Airpod | Pros And Cons
	Hydrogen Technology | Environmental friendly?		Biodiesel Fuel |Biodiesel Emissions Vs Conventional Diesel Emissions
	Future Green Technology | Solar Roads

The desire to decrease environmental impacts and reduce oil dependence is urging interest in alternative fuels and green technologies. Manufacturers and researchers have been experimenting with technology that helps to build hybrids, electric cars, and alternative fuel vehicles, for quite some time now, due of the growing concern for our environment.

The Green Car's, Green Technology & Alternative Fuels section helps to know more about green vehicles and the alternative fuels and technologies that power them.

Working of Hybrid cars

A hybrid car, also recognized as an HEV or hybrid electric vehicle, is an automobile that is powered by two sources; an internal combustion engine, and an electric motor. Hybrid cars have no use for plugs, as they are adequately charged by the movement of the wheels, and storing the kinetic energy that is generated through a process called regenerative braking. Hybrid cars have several environmental benefits and economical benefits.

Hybrid cars VS Electric Cars

Many people relate hybrid cars with electric cars. However, the two are quite different. The hybrid does not need to be plugged into an electrical outlet to recharge. Gas motors switch on automatically when the battery gets low, and continues to charge the battery. Hence hybrid cars still use gas while electric cars do not.

Environmental Impacts

Current HEVs reduce petroleum usage under certain conditions, compared to other similar conventional vehicles, primarily by using three mechanisms:

1. Reduces energy wastage during idle/low output, generally by turning the ICE off
2. Recapturing waste energy (i.e. regenerative braking)
3. Reducing the size and power of the ICE, and hence inefficiencies from under-utilization, by using the added power from the electric motor to compensate for the loss in peak power output from the smaller ICE.

Reduced noise emissions resulting from considerable use of the electric motor at idling and low speeds, lead to roadway noise reduction. In comparison to conventional gasoline or diesel powered engine vehicles, hybrid cars result in beneficial noise health effects.

Pollution

Reduced air pollution emissions, due to lower fuel utilization, lead improved human health with regard to respiratory problems and other diseases.

Battery toxicity is a concern, though today's hybrids use NiMH batteries, not nickel cadmium which are environmentally problematic. "Nickel metal hydride batteries are gentle. “These dead batteries can be recycled and their disposal will pose no toxic hazards” says Toyota and Ford. On each battery Toyota puts a phone number, and they pay a $200 "bounty" for each battery inorder to make sure that it is properly recycled.

Reduced air pollution emissions, due to lower fuel utilization, lead improved human health with regard to respiratory problems and other diseases.

Battery toxicity is a concern, though today's hybrids use NiMH batteries, not nickel cadmium which are environmentally problematic. "Nickel metal hydride batteries are gentle. “These dead batteries can be recycled and their disposal will pose no toxic hazards” says Toyota and Ford. On each battery Toyota puts a phone number, and they pay a $200 "bounty" for each battery inorder to make sure that it is properly recycled.

Economical Benefits

Many states have been providing both cash and privilege inducements for consumers who purchase ecologically friendly vehicles. Below is a list of incentives offered in each state. If we've left out any, kindly let us know!

• California - hybrid car owners are presented a tax credit.
• Colorado - hybrid car owners are permitted the use of carpool lanes and are excused from parking fees in certain parts of the sate.
• Connecticut - those interested in purchasing a hybrid car with a fuel economy rating of better than 40mpg are excused from sales tax on the purchase.
• Florida - hybrid car owners may drive in carpool lanes with out considering the number of passengers.
• Georgia - hybrid car owners may drive in carpool lanes with out considering the number of passengers.
• Maine-- hybrid car owners may be eligible for a tax rebate of as high as $500.
• Maryland - hybrid car owners are offered a tax rebate of $1000.
• New Mexico - hybrid car owners are excluded from paying the motor vehicle excise tax.
• New York - hybrid car owners are offered a tax rebate of $5000.
• Oregon - hybrid car owners are offered a tax rebate of $1500.
• Pennsylvania - as of 2005, hybrid car owners are eligible for a $500 rebate.
• Utah - hybrid car owners are presented a tax credit for up to $3000.

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Working of an electric car

Unlike a hybrid car which needs to be fueled by gasoline and uses a battery and motor to improve efficiency an electric car is powered completely by electricity. An electric car uses electric motors and motor controllers for propulsion, instead of regular propulsion methods such as the internal combustion engine (ICE). They are generally powered by on-board battery packs, and as such are battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Other on-board energy storage techniques that are expected to come into exercise in the future include ultra capacitors, fuel cells, and a spinning flywheel which stores kinetic energy.

Electric Cars Vs Gasoline

Another factor is convenience: In a single trip to the gas station, you will be able to pump 330 kilowatt-hours of energy into a 10-gallon tank. It may take about 9 days to acquire the same amount of energy from domestic electric current. Luckily, it takes hours and not days to recharge an electric car, as it's much more efficient. Speaking of expediency, let's not forget two important points: charging up at home means never going to a gas station—and electric cars require almost none of the maintenance, like oil changes and emissions checks, that internal combustion cars require.

Electric motors extend their highest torque from zero rpms—meaning fast (and silent) zero-to-60 acceleration times.

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Wondering what is ethanol and how can it be used as alternate fuel?

Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) is a similar type of alcohol that is present in alcoholic beverages. As a fuel, ethanol can be used in more than 30 flex fuel vehicle models that have been designed to run on alcohol, gasoline, or any blend of the two fuels from the same tank. A large amount of ethanol is produced from corn or sugar cane, although this will change as cheaper cellulose ethanol prepared from fast growing woody grasses and other biomass.

About The Vehicles Running On Ethanol Fuel

The Hot Plug-in Hybrid Ford E85

Ford E85 helps you to drive without burning a drop of gasoline. Enjoy a quiet, smooth, and clean ride propelled by electrical energy that is downloaded from the grid via a standard 110 volt household outlet.

As a Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), this Escape can accelerate up to 40 mph exclusively on electric power at a reasonably aggressive rate without need for the internal combustion engine.

Advantages Of Using Such Vehicles

• Huge Petroleum Displacement Possible
• Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions

We already know that gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles are very much fuel efficient. But what if a hybrid’s gasoline use was replaced by E85 ethanol – a most renewable fuel – in these increasingly popular vehicles? According to some sources, if just 5 percent of the total vehicle fleet in the U.S. was powered by hybrids running on E85 fuel, the country’s oil imports would be decreased by about 150 million barrels each year.

Hybrid vehicles by nature attain greater fuel efficiency and thus release fewer greenhouse gases per mile. Internal combustion engines working on ethanol also generate fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since ethanol is less carbon-rich than gasoline. Combine the two and you have a powerful approach for plummeting GHG emissions in any vehicle. A Ford Escape hybrid operating completely on E85 fuel and electric power will generate about 25 percent less carbon dioxide than an Escape Hybrid that uses gasoline.

Disadvantages Of Using Such Vehicles

• Costly to produce and use
• Ethanol has a smaller energy density than gasoline. It takes about 1.5 times more ethanol than gasoline to travel the same distance

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How Hydrogen Is Used As Fuel For Vehicles?

Hydrogen can be used as a fuel for a vehicle in two different ways. One way is to use hydrogen to stimulate an internal combustion engine. The other technique is a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle.

Compressed hydrogen in either liquid or gaseous form is capable of powering an internal combustion engine. Compressed hydrogen is efficient but it is bulky and inflammable. Liquid hydrogen, which is the most compressed form of hydrogen, is still lightweight although it is less efficient and also inflammable. Sometimes hydrogen is delivered to the engine by substances that absorb and then release hydrogen. Some examples are metal hydride and ultra-porous nanotech material. Metal hydride is extremely compact but the down side is it is heavy, runs hot and is inflammable. Ultra-porous nanotech material is compact and efficient but the only drawback is that it takes a long time to fill up a tank (15-30 min.).

There are serious storage troubles with hydrogen gas. The quantity of space that is required to store hydrogen is one problem. One pound (0.454 kg) of gaseous hydrogen at normal atmospheric pressure acquires up 1450 gallons (5500L) of space. In liquid form, one pound (0.454 kg) acquires up 5.5 L of space. Most hydrogen cars now carry liquid hydrogen in metal alloys because it occupies less space. To stay liquid, hydrogen needs to be chilled to -423°F and be under intense pressure, up to 20 000 pounds per square inch.

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Hydrogen fuel cells

Hydrogen fuel cells are another way to power a vehicle. Over here as its name implies hydrogen is used to power an electric vehicle. Hydrogen is perhaps the cleanest of all alternative fuels, burning with virtually zero emissions in an internal combustion engine and with emission of only water vapor and heat in an electro-mechanical fuel cell.

Wondering how can hydrogen generates electricity for cars?

Why batteries failed:

We all know that a battery basically has all of its chemicals stored inside and it converts those chemicals into energy. Ultimately, the battery would go dead and one would require either throwing it or recharging it.

Hydrogen fuel cells came out to be one solution which sees scientists through the troubles with the batteries. But with cost, weight, volume, hydrogen storage and safety researchers faced significant challenge. Although such systems have become smaller and lighter with standard improvements, but they still are too large and heavy to be used in smaller vehicles.

Fuel Cells as a source of Portable Energy:

Further researches have found out techniques to make hydrogen cells more efficient and also overcome problems of cost and safety that hey currently faced. Microbe-Organic Fuel Cells, Microbe-Cellulose Fuel Cells, and Enzyme-Starch Fuel Cells are methods through which researchers aim at making hydrogen fuel cells more effective.

Micro-organic fuel cells: This system uses bacterial culture to oxidize organic molecules to generate carbon dioxide and hydrogen. This system is more appropriate for treating waste water than in automobiles as it requires large number of bacteria.

Microbe Cellulose fuel cells: This system is based on cellulose, which is a constituent of biomass, which is used by directly burning the material. It is best suited for centralized production of electricity than for portable.

Enzyme-Starch Fuel Cells: This system is more appropriate for the portable energy usage as it requires starch and is easy to retain as energy is generated as long as starch is fed into the cell.

Hydrogen vehicles are being produced in many forms by most major car manufacturers. Some vehicles motorized by hydrogen are in demonstration fleets, while others like the Honda FCX Clarity and Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell are being driven by customers.

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About Vehicles Using Hydrogen As Fuel - Mercedes hydrogen Car

Why they are considered to be environment friendly?

At present there are a number of prototype car designs which are fuelled by hydrogen fuel cells, rather than conventional gasoline. The emissions of these cars consist of little more than some water vapour, and for that reason they are considered environmentally friendly.

Advantages

• When hydrogen is burned, the only emission it makes is water vapor, so a key advantage of hydrogen is that when burned, carbon dioxide (CO2) is not produced.
• Clearly, hydrogen is less of a pollutant in the air because it omits little tail pipe pollution.
• Hydrogen has the potential to run a fuel-cell engine with greater efficiency over an internal combustion engine. The same amount of hydrogen will take a fuel-cell car at least twice as far as a car running on gasoline.

Disadvantages

• At present, it still costs a substantial amount of money to run a hydrogen vehicle because it takes a large amount of energy to liquefy the fuel.
• Serious storage problems with hydrogen gas.

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When ethanol and hydrogen are used as natural gas why natural gas can’t be used?

Natural gas, termed "the prince of hydrocarbons" by some, is an increasingly important fuel source in the world energy system. Being the cleanest-burning fossil fuel, it is utilized by a rising number of medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles like refuse trucks and delivery vans. Natural gas is stored and used in its liquefied or compressed states. It is usually abbreviated as LNG for Liquefied Natural Gas and CNG for Compressed Natural Gas.

Working Of Natural Gas Vehicles

The principle behind natural gas automobiles is simple, burning methane, CH4, rather than complex hydrocarbons, for powering the car. Without being too technical, methane is the most efficient hydrocarbon fuel, and emits the least carbon dioxide. If even half of the cars in North America converted, the reduction in CO2 emissions would be huge, along with the levels of smog causing gases.

The conversion is an easy process, and the number of skilled mechanics is growing rapidly. New cars are entering the marketplace, which can run on natural gas, ethanol enriched gasoline and pure gasoline, making refilling easy. It is simply a matter of fixing storage tanks in the trunk of the vehicle and setting up injection nozzles in the engine, not a major undertaking.

Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV) - Honda Civic GX 2010

The Civic GX is purely powered by clean natural gas, making it almost free of emissions. And you don’t have to stop at a regular gas station—unless you need a snack.

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Advantages of using natural gas a fuel

• Economical and Efficient
• Reliable
• Abundant supply
• Environmentally clean
• Has enviable safety record

Economical and Efficient

• Natural gas is convenient. The energy supply is piped directly to the consumer’s facility through the safe, efficient pipeline system.

Enviable Safety Record

• An odorant is added to natural gas by the firm. When the odor of gas is detected, it signals that a leakage exists and should be fixed.

Environmentally Clean

• Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel. As the combustion process for natural gas is almost faultless, very few by-products are released into the atmosphere as pollutants. Also, with the introduction of new technologies, nitrogen oxide, a pollutant targeted by the Clean Air Act can be considerably reduced. The blue flame seen when natural gas is ignited is a sign of perfect combustion.
• As natural gas burns cleanly, it doesn't leave behind any unpleasant soot, ash, or odors.
• Switching to natural gas avoids the need for an underground storage tank--eliminating the threat of oil spills, soil pollution and costly environmental clean-up.
• Or, if the oil tank is above ground, changing to natural gas eliminates worry about spills or deterioration of the tank.
• Natural gas is harmless. If inhaled in small amounts natural gas is not poisonous or injurious to humans.

Disadvantages

• Natural gas is a highly inflammable and it needs to be produced in highly managed circumstances.
• Constructing and managing the pipelines used to transport natural gas can be costly.
• Natural gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless which can make finding potentially hazardous leaks difficult.
• Its requisite of large storage spaces makes natural gas extremely difficult to be shipped from one place to another. As a result the demand for natural gas is not uniformly met worldwide. However, a recent option is to build large refrigerated ships that have in built mechanism to cool and compress natural gas into LNG or liquefied Natural Gas. But these ships are very costly to construct.
• There are only few gas stations that offer refilling services for natural gas. The vehicles running on them need more gas to run efficiently between fill-ups.

Environmental Issues

The combustion of gas still generates nitrogen oxides, a cause of smog and acid rain. And while carbon releases are minor, natural gas itself is a powerful greenhouse gas. Natural gas (methane) is much more effective than carbon dioxide at entrapping heat in the atmosphere, 58 times more effective on a pound-for-pound basis. Methane concentrations have increased eight times faster than carbon dioxide, doubling-up since the beginning of the industrial age. The use of natural gas has accounted for about 10 percent of all global warming emissions.

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Plug in hybrids brag great potential for improving fuel economy. Plug in hybrid technology allows gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles to be recharged or re-energized from the grid and run many miles on battery power alone. A gas engine provides further driving range as required after the battery power is gone. Plug in hybrids may never need to run on anything but electricity for shorter distances. The combination of gas and electric driving technologies can already attain up to 150 mpg.

Most PHEVs on the road at present are passenger cars, but there are also PHEV versions of commercial automobiles and vans, utility trucks, buses, trains, motorcycles, scooters, and military vehicles. They are at times called grid-connected hybrids, gas-optional hybrids, or GO-HEVs.

Plug-in vehicles - New Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Car

Wondering What Is The Difference Between a PHEV and HEV ?

The below diagram will best illustrate you the difference.

Advantages of Plug-in hybrid vehicles

• Plug-in hybrid cars have substantial fuel efficiency benefits compared to other vehicles:
• A hybrid car, depending on the model, attains about twice the fuel economy as a conventional car of the same size and capacity.
• A plug-in hybrid car can achieve about twice the fuel economy of a conventional hybrid
• A plug-in hybrid, running on biofuel (e.g., 85-percent ethanol or biodiesel) can almost exclusively eliminate its use of petroleum
• Unlike gasoline cars, plug-ins will get cleaner as they get older -- as the power grid is getting cleaner.
• The charge of electricity to power plug-in hybrids for all-electric operation has been estimated at less than one quarter of the cost of gasoline.
• A fleet of PHEVs could power critical systems at times of emergencies.
• The emission of green house gases is less compared to that of a convention car.

• Plug-in vehicles are Cheaper to use and Cheaper to Maintain
• Smog
  • The Ontario Medical Association proclaimed that smog is responsible for an estimated 9,500 premature deaths in its region every year. Plug-in hybrids in emission-free electric mode may contribute to the reduction of smog.

Disadvantages

• Cost, weight, size, and disposal of batteries
• Electrical Outlets outside garages
• Several people living in apartments, condominiums, and townhouses do not have garages. With only on-street parking available, they will require access to electrical outlets to take advantage of all-electric operation. New electrical outlets near their places of dwellings, or in commercial or public parking lots or streets will need to be installed for them to gain the full advantage of PHEVs.
• Emissions shifted to electric plants.

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Wondering how can cars be powered by air?

Though air powered cars seem like the stuff of fantasy, there are vehicles being developed that actually run on nothing but compressed air. This zero-emission ‘fuel’ is believed to hold assurance for future car models and is being found in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Air power can be quite frightening, as mechanics have used pneumatic air powered tools to do heavy-duty work in service shops all over the world.

How the Air Car Works

Air? At first glance, the idea of driving a car on air seems almost too good to be true. If we can exploit air as fuel, why think about using something else? Air is all around us. Air never runs out. Air is nonpolluting. Best of all, air is free.

Unfortunately, air alone cannot be used as a fuel. First, energy has to be stored in it by compressing the air tightly using a mechanical air compressor. Once the compressed air is set free, it expands. This expanding air can be used, for instance, to drive the pistons that power an engine. The idea of using compressed air to power a vehicle isn't new: Earlier models of an air-powered vehicle go back to the middle of the 19th century, even before the invention of the internal combustion engine.

How Compressed Air Can Fuel a Car

Compressing a gas into a small space is a way to store energy. When the gas expands again, energy is released and that energy is used to do work. That is the basic principle behind what makes an air car go.

Initially air cars will have air compressors built into them. After an efficient drive, you'll be able to take the car home, put it into the garage and plug in the compressor. The compressor will utilize the air from around the car to refill the compressed air tank. Unfortunately, this is a rather slow method of refilling and will probably take up to two hours for a complete refill. If the idea of an air car holds on, air refilling stations will become available at ordinary gas stations, where the tank can be refilled much more quickly with air that's already been compressed. Refilling your tank at the pump will probably take about three minutes.

An Air Powered Car - Airpod

This is called Airpod as it is being powered by air. It is designed to fill just that niche. With a top speed of 40 MPH, a range of 130 miles, and seating for three, the exclusively designed vehicle could work very well for a lot of people. Sounds pretty good, but unfortunately, as with so many efficient vehicles, be they prototypes or not, this car won’t be available in the U.S. until 2010.

Advantages

The major advantages of an air powered vehicle are:

• Refueling can be done at home with an air compressor [or at service stations. The energy essential for compressing air is produced at large centralized plants, making it less expensive and more efficient to manage carbon emissions than from individual vehicles.
• Compressed air engines decrease the cost of vehicle production, as there is no need to build a cooling system, spark plugs, starter motor, or mufflers.
• The rate of self-discharge is very low compared to batteries that deplete their charge slowly over time. Therefore, the vehicle can be left idle for longer periods of time than electric cars.
• Expansion of the compressed air lowers its temperature; this may be exploited for use as air conditioning.
• Compressed-air vehicles produce few pollutants, mostly dust from brake and tire wear.
• Air turbines, intimately related to steam turbines, are a technology over 50 years old. It is easy to achieve with low tech materials. This would imply that developing countries, and rapidly growing countries like China and India, could easily employ a less polluting means of personal transportation than an internal combustion engine automobile.
• Reduction or omission of hazardous chemicals such as gasoline or battery acids/metals.
• Some motorized configurations may allow energy recuperation during braking by compressing and storing air.

Disadvantages

The main disadvantage is the indirect utilization of energy. Energy is used to squeeze air, which - in turn - provides the energy to run the motor. Any change of energy between forms results in loss. For conventional combustion motor cars, the energy is lost when chemical energy in fossil fuels is changed to heat energy, most of which goes to waste. For compressed-air cars, energy vanishes when chemical energy is converted to electrical energy, and then when electrical energy is converted to compressed air.

• When air expands in the engine it cools significantly (Charles law) and must be heated to ambient temperature with the help of a heat exchanger. The heating is essential in order to get a significant fraction of the theoretical energy output. The heat exchanger can be problematic. While it performs a similar task to an intercooler for an internal combustion engine, the temperature variation between the incoming air and the working gas is smaller. In heating the stored air, the machine gets very cold and may ice up in cool, moist climates.
• On the other hand, when air is compressed to fill the tank it heats up: as the stored air cools, its pressure decreases and available energy decreases. It is hard to cool the tank efficiently while charging and thus it would either take a long time to fill the tank, or less energy is stored.
• Refilling the compressed air container using a home or low-end conventional air compressor may take as long as 4 hours, though specialized equipment at service stations may fill the tanks in only 3 minutes.

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Biodiesel Fuel Is A Better Alternative For Your Car. Do You Know Why?

Biodiesel is a viable fuel alternative. It is also a sustainable fuel. It is a renewable alternative fuel prepared from various sources range from waste vegetable oil to soybeans. It can often be used seamlessly in diesel engines of all types. Biodiesel is a cleaner fuel than ordinary petroleum diesel. Since it can be produced locally, biodiesel has the power to reduce our reliance on foreign countries for oil, and enhance local economies where biodiesel production is taking place.

Biodiesel Production Cycle

Average Biodiesel Emissions Compared To Conventional Diesel According To EPA

About Vehicles that run on biodiesel - 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI

Advantages of using Biodiesel as a fuel for car:

1. Biodiesel fuel is not injurious to the environment. A car using biodiesel fuel generates fewer emissions.



2. Biodiesel fuel may not require an engine alteration. Some mix 20% biodiesel with normal diesel.
3. Biodiesel fuel is less expensive when compared to regular desiel. You can even make biodiesel in your backyard. If your engine can work with biodiesel fuel alone, then you actually need not go to the gas station to buy fuel. You can just produce some for your own personal use.
4. Biodiesel fuel helps the vehicle perform better. It is renowned that biodiesel has a cetane number of over 100. Cetane number is used to measure the superiority of the fuel's ignition.
5. Biodiesel fuel helps to increase the lifespan of your car. Because of the lucidity and the purity of biodiesel, you can be certain that it will not have too many impurities to harm your car.
6. Biodiesel fuel decreases the environmental effect of a waste product. Because biodiesel fuel is prepared out of waste products itself, it does not contribute to nature's garbage at all.
7. Biodiesel fuel is energy efficient.
8. Producing biodiesel is easier and is less time consuming.
9. Biodiesel fuel is manufactured locally. A locally manufactured fuel will be more cost efficient. A locally manufactured fuel will be more cost efficient. There is no need to give tariff or similar taxes to the countries from which oil and petroleum diesels are sourced. Every country has the gift to produce biodiesel.

Disadvantages

Cold weather properties.

The mail disadvantage of bio diesel is that its cold weather properties are not as fine as that of petroleum diesel. This means that those people who live in cold countries will need to take safety measures during winter if using bio diesel.

When discussing about bio diesel people refer to the Cloud Point. The cloud point is that point at which the bio diesel begins to solidify. So a cloud point of 10° C notifies that it cannot be used below this temperature.

Bio diesel acquires characteristics of the material from which it is made. Below is a list Cloud points of bio diesels made of the corresponding products.

Materials Incompatibilities

Another disadvantage of using bio diesel is that biodiesel has a tendency to dissolve nitrile rubbers. After 1994, in several countries, motor manufacturers started using more bio diesel compatible materials. If you own a later model vehicle, this will not be a problem for you.

Fuel system flushing

One of the features of bio diesel is that it is a very good solvent. Petroleum diesel in contrast tends to leave deposits in the fuel system. These deposits obtain the form of mud in the fuel tank, as well as a varnish on the inside of the fuel pipes. Using bio diesel will flush out these deposits out.

This will block up the fuel filters and will cause the engine to stop. When using bio diesel for the first time, it is wise to take a spare fuel filter with you.

This really is only a problem on vehicles which have been running on petroleum diesel for a long period of time. Vehicles that have been running only on diesel for a few years will not have a problem.

It is feasible to have the fuel tanks steam cleaned which will eliminate the deposits and minimize the problem.

Power Loss

While running bio diesel you will experience a loss of power anywhere from 1-10%. Usually the power loss is about 5%.

This may be of concern if the engine is running close to full load, under heavy acceleration or you are a street racer, but it is not usually a considerable issue. Most vehicles today have plenty of extra power available.

However when shipping goods or in other circumstances where engines are run at load, the fuel consumption will increase accordingly. Fuel consumption can expand from 5-10%.

The degree of power loss or fuel consumption increase relies on the material that the biodiesel is made from. Animal Fat Bio diesel is not much affected as Vegetable Oil Bio diesel.

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Cars in the future will evolve to run cleaner and faster than ever before, because every now and then new technologies are being developed by automakers, engine manufacturers, and component suppliers. While more conventional technologies like hybrid cars and hydrogen fuel cells continue to push the limitations of today’s car technology, all new innovations will be introduced in the future, which also contribute to better fuel economy, lower greenhouse gases and enhanced tailpipe emissions.

High-Tech Solar Roads Power Electric Vehicles

Some ecologists are concerned about the impact of huge solar farms. But what if solar energy could be generated in ways that don’t add to environmental impact … like replacing asphalt surfaces on roadways with solar panels? That’s the idea being proposed by Solar Roadways of Sagle, Idaho. Without using any new real estate for solar power plants, the company estimates that if solar panels covered all the asphalt surfaces in 48 states – roads, parking lots, driveways, and sidewalks - they could supply several times the country’s electrical energy needs.

The idea isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem. In fact, the Department of Transportation has awarded Solar Roadways a $100,000 contract to demonstrate the first prototype Solar Road Panel, which will consist of building and testing the first 12-foot by 12-foot prototype panel.

Solar Road Panels are composed of three layers. The bottom, or base plate, layer contains data and power lines to distribute electrical power. The middle electronics layer contains a large array of solar cells, supercapacitors to store the electricity, and embedded LEDs. The LEDs ‘paint’ the road lines from beneath for safer nighttime driving and can provide real time warnings.

The top road surface layer is made of translucent high-strength material that lets sunlight through to the solar collector cells. It provides the same traction capability as asphalt while handling heavy traffic and protecting the electronic components below. Besides producing electricity, in colder climates Solar Roads could generate heat to prevent snow and ice accumulation. Thus, parking lots could be a primary first application.

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