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Alternative fuel

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Typical Brazilian filling station with four alternative fuels for sale: biodiesel (B3), gasohol (E25),
neat ethanol (E100), and compressed natural gas (CNG). Piracicaba, So Paulo, Brazil.
Alternative fuels, known as non-conventional or advanced fuels, are any materials or substances
that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels. Conventional fuels include: fossil fuels
(petroleum (oil), coal, and natural gas), as well as nuclear materials such as uranium and
thorium, as well as artificial radioisotope fuels that are made in nuclear reactors.
Some well-known alternative fuels include biodiesel, bioalcohol (methanol, ethanol, butanol),
chemically stored electricity (batteries and fuel cells), hydrogen, non-fossil methane, non-fossil
natural gas, vegetable oil, propane, and other biomass sources.

Contents

1 Background

2 Biofuel
o 2.1 Biomass
o 2.2 Algae-based fuels
o 2.3 Biodiesel

3 Alcohol fuels

4 Ammonia

5 Carbon-neutral and negative fuels

6 Hydrogen

7 HCNG

8 Liquid nitrogen

9 Compressed air

10 Natural Gas Vehicles


o 10.1 CNG Fuel Types
o 10.2 Practicality
o 10.3 Environmental Analysis

11 Nuclear power and radiothermal generators


o 11.1 Nuclear reactors
o 11.2 Radiothermal generators

12 See also

13 References

14 External links

Background
The main purpose of fuel is to store energy, which should be in a stable form and can be easily
transported to the place of use. Almost all fuels are chemical fuels. The user employs this fuel to
generate heat or perform mechanical work, such as powering an engine. It may also be used to
generate electricity, which is then used for heating, lighting, or other purpose.

Biofuel
Main article: Biofuel

Alternative fuel dispensers at a regular gasoline station in Arlington, Virginia. B20 biodiesel at
the left and E85 ethanol at the right.
Biofuels are also considered a renewable source. Although renewable energy is used mostly to
generate electricity, it is often assumed that some form of renewable energy or a percentage is
used to create alternative fuels.

Biomass
Main article: Biomass
Biomass in the energy production industry is living and recently dead biological material which
can be used as fuel or for industrial production.

Algae-based fuels
Main article: Algae fuel
Algae-based biofuels have been promoted in the media as a potential panacea to crude oil-based
transportation problems. Algae could yield more than 2000 gallons of fuel per acre per year of
production.[1] Algae based fuels are being successfully tested by the U.S. Navy[2] Algae-based
plastics show potential to reduce waste and the cost per pound of algae plastic is expected to be
cheaper than traditional plastic prices.[3]

Biodiesel
Biodiesel is made from animal fats or vegetable oils, renewable resources that come from plants
such as,jatropha, soybean, sunflowers, corn, olive, peanut, palm, coconut, safflower, canola,
sesame, cottonseed, etc. Once these fats or oils are filtered from their hydrocarbons and then
combined with alcohol like methanol, biodiesel is brought to life[clarification needed] from this chemical
reaction. These raw materials can either be mixed with pure diesel to make various proportions,
or used alone. Despite ones mixture preference, biodiesel will release smaller number of
pollutants (carbon monoxide particulates and hydrocarbons) than conventional diesel, because
biodiesel burns both cleanly and more efficiently. Even with regular diesels reduced quantity of
sulfur from the ULSD (ultra-low sulfur diesel) invention, biodiesel exceeds those levels because
it is sulfur-free.[4]

Alcohol fuels
Main articles: Alcohol fuel, Butanol fuel, Ethanol fuel and Methanol fuel
Methanol and ethanol fuel are primary sources of energy; they are convenient fuels for storing
and transporting energy. These alcohols can be used in internal combustion engines as alternative
fuels. Butanol has another advantage: it is the only alcohol-based motor fuel that can be
transported readily by existing petroleum-product pipeline networks, instead of only by tanker
trucks and railroad cars.[citation needed]

Ammonia
Ammonia (NH3) can be used as fuel.[5][6] Benefits of ammonia include no need for oil, zero
emissions, low cost, and distributed production reducing transport and related pollution.[citation
needed]

Carbon-neutral and negative fuels


Carbon neutral fuel is synthetic fuelsuch as methane, gasoline, diesel fuel or jet fuel
produced from renewable or nuclear energy used to hydrogenate waste carbon dioxide recycled
from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater.[7][8][9][10] Such fuels
are potentially carbon neutral because they do not result in a net increase in atmospheric
greenhouse gases.[11][12] To the extent that carbon neutral fuels displace fossil fuels, or if they are
produced from waste carbon or seawater carbonic acid, and their combustion is subject to carbon
capture at the flue or exhaust pipe, they result in negative carbon dioxide emission and net
carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, and thus constitute a form of greenhouse gas
remediation.[13][14][15] Such carbon neutral and negative fuels can be produced by the electrolysis
of water to make hydrogen used in the Sabatier reaction to produce methane which may then be
stored to be burned later in power plants as synthetic natural gas, transported by pipeline, truck,
or tanker ship, or be used in gas to liquids processes such as the FischerTropsch process to
make traditional transportation or heating fuels.[16][17][18]
Part of a series on

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Concepts

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Renewable energy
Policies

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Carbon related

Low-carbon economy

Carbon neutral fuel

Carbon neutrality

Carbon pricing

Emissions trading

Carbon credit

Carbon offset

Carbon emission trading

Personal carbon trading

Carbon tax
Carbon finance

Feed-in tariff

Carbon diet

Food miles

2000-watt society

Carbon footprint

Carbon-neutral fuels have been proposed for distributed storage for renewable energy,
minimizing problems of wind and solar intermittency, and enabling transmission of wind, water,
and solar power through existing natural gas pipelines. Such renewable fuels could alleviate the
costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of
the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels, enabling continued compatible and
affordable vehicles.[16] Germany has built a 250-kilowatt synthetic methane plant which they are
scaling up to 10 megawatts.[19][20][21] Audi has constructed a carbon neutral liquefied natural gas
(LNG) plant in Werlte, Germany.[22] The plant is intended to produce transportation fuel to offset
LNG used in their A3 Sportback g-tron automobiles, and can keep 2,800 metric tons of CO2 out
of the environment per year at its initial capacity.[23] Other commercial developments are taking
place in Columbia, South Carolina,[24] Camarillo, California,[25] and Darlington, England.[26]
The least expensive source of carbon for recycling into fuel is flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel
combustion, where it can be extracted for about US $7.50 per ton.[9][12][17] Automobile exhaust gas
capture has also been proposed to be economical but would require extensive design changes or
retrofitting.[27] Since carbonic acid in seawater is in chemical equilibrium with atmospheric
carbon dioxide, extraction of carbon from seawater has been studied.[28][29] Researchers have
estimated that carbon extraction from seawater would cost about $50 per ton.[10] Carbon capture
from ambient air is more costly, at between $600 and $1000 per ton and is considered
impractical for fuel synthesis or carbon sequestration.[12][13]
Nighttime wind power is considered[by whom?] the most economical form of electrical power with
which to synthesize fuel, because the load curve for electricity peaks sharply during the warmest
hours of the day, but wind tends to blow slightly more at night than during the day. Therefore, the
price of nighttime wind power is often much less expensive than any alternative. Off-peak wind
power prices in high wind penetration areas of the U.S. averaged 1.64 cents per kilowatt-hour in
2009, but only 0.71 cents/kWh during the least expensive six hours of the day.[16] Typically,
wholesale electricity costs 2 to 5 cents/kWh during the day.[30] Commercial fuel synthesis
companies suggest they can produce fuel for less than petroleum fuels when oil costs more than
$55 per barrel.[31] The U.S. Navy estimates that shipboard production of jet fuel from nuclear
power would cost about $6 per gallon. While that was about twice the petroleum fuel cost in
2010, it is expected to be much less than the market price in less than five years if recent trends
continue. Moreover, since the delivery of fuel to a carrier battle group costs about $8 per gallon,
shipboard production is already much less expensive.[32] However, U.S. civilian nuclear power is
considerably more expensive than wind power.[33] The Navy's estimate that 100 megawatts can
produce 41,000 gallons of fuel per day indicates that terrestrial production from wind power
would cost less than $1 per gallon.[34]

Hydrogen

Main article: Hydrogen fuel


Hydrogen is an emissionless fuel. The byproduct of hydrogen burning is water, although some
mono-nitrogen oxides NOx are produced when hydrogen is burned with air.[35][36]

HCNG
Main article: HCNG
HCNG (or H2CNG) is a mixture of compressed natural gas and 4-9 percent hydrogen by energy.
[37]

Liquid nitrogen
Liquid nitrogen is another type of emissionless fuel.

Compressed air
The air engine is an emission-free piston engine using compressed air as fuel. Unlike hydrogen,
compressed air is about one-tenth as expensive as fossil oil, making it an economically attractive
alternative fuel.

Natural Gas Vehicles


Compressed natural gas (CNG) and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) are two a cleaner combusting
alternatives to conventional liquid automobile fuels.

CNG Fuel Types


CNG vehicles can use both renewable CNG and non-renewable CNG.[38]
Conventional CNG is produced from the many underground natural gas reserves are in
widespread production worldwide today. New technologies such as horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing to economically access unconventional gas resources, appear to have
increased the supply of natural gas in a fundamental way.[39]
Renewable natural gas or biogas is a methanebased gas with similar properties to natural gas
that can be used as transportation fuel. Present sources of biogas are mainly landfills, sewage,
and animal/agriwaste. Based on the process type, biogas can be divided into the following:
Biogas produced by anaerobic digestion, Landfill gas collected from landfills, treated to remove
trace contaminants, and Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG).[38]

Practicality

Around the world, this gas powers more than 5 million vehicles, and just over 150,000 of these
are in the U.S.[40] American usage is growing at a dramatic rate.[41]

Environmental Analysis
Because natural gas emits little pollutant when combusted, cleaner air quality has been measured
in urban localities switching to natural gas vehicles [42] Tailpipe CO2 can be reduced by 1525%
compared to gasoline, diesel.[43] The greatest reductions occur in medium and heavy duty, light
duty and refuse truck segments.[43]
CO2 reductions of up to 88% are possible by using biogas.[44]
Similarities to Hydrogen Natural gas, like hydrogen, is another fuel that burns cleanly; cleaner
than both gasoline and diesel engines. Also, none of the smog-forming contaminates are emitted.
Hydrogen and Natural Gas are both lighter than air and can be mixed together.[45]

Nuclear power and radiothermal generators


Main articles: Nuclear power and radiothermal generator

Nuclear reactors
Nuclear power is any nuclear technology designed to extract usable energy from atomic nuclei
via controlled nuclear reactions. The only controlled method now practical uses nuclear fission in
a fissile fuel (with a small fraction of the power coming from subsequent radioactive decay). Use
of the nuclear reaction nuclear fusion for controlled power generation is not yet practical, but is
an active area of research.
Nuclear power is usually used by using a nuclear reactor to heat a working fluid such as water,
which is then used to create steam pressure, which is converted into mechanical work for the
purpose of generating electricity or propulsion in water. Today, more than 15% of the world's
electricity comes from nuclear power, and over 150 nuclear-powered naval vessels have been
built.
In theory, electricity from nuclear reactors could also be used for propulsion in space, but this has
yet to be demonstrated in a space flight. Some smaller reactors, such as the TOPAZ nuclear
reactor, are built to minimize moving parts, and use methods that convert nuclear energy to
electricity more directly, making them useful for space missions, but this electricity has
historically been used for other purposes. Power from nuclear fission has been used in a number
of spacecraft, all of them unmanned. The Soviets up to 1988 orbited 33 nuclear reactors in
RORSAT military radar satellites, where electric power generated was used to power a radar unit
that located ships on the Earth's oceans. The U.S. also orbited one experimental nuclear reactor
in 1965, in the SNAP-10A mission. No nuclear reactor has been sent into space since 1988.

Radiothermal generators

In addition, radioisotopes have been used as alternative fuels, on both land and in space. Their
use on land is declining due to the danger of theft of isotope and environmental damage if the
unit is opened. The decay of radioisotopes generates both heat and electricity in many space
probes, particularly probes to outer planets where sunlight is weak, and low temperatures is a
problem. Radiothermal generators (RTGs) which use such radioisotopes as fuels do not sustain a
nuclear chain reaction, but rather generate electricity from the decay of a radioisotope which has
(in turn) been produced on Earth as a concentrated power source (fuel) using energy from an
Earth-based nuclear reactor.[46]

See also
Sustainable development portal
Energy portal

Alcohol fuel

Alternative fuel cars

Alternative propulsion

Biogas

Compressed-air vehicle

Energy development

Fischer-Tropsch process

Greasestock - An alternative fuel festival in New

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