It's Sexy... It's Cool... it's...

It's Sexy... It's Cool... it's impractical for our world right now! So what am I talking about; Hydrogen as an alternative energy fuel. It will require re-configuring and rethinking our cars, (not a bad idea) re-doing our fuel distribution system(very costly) and coming up with a method to make the stuff. Wow three strikes against it from the start. I don't know if the US or any country can come up with enough money to accomplish such a project on such a grand scale. This is why I think ethanol, butanol and bio-diesel have a much better chance at weaning us off expensive imports fuel oil. But, ethanol may not be a very big winner just because it cannot be distributed through our current system and because it absorbs water readily from the air, it may not be good for climates where there is high humidity (east coast). It also requires modification to our current gasoline engines before they will run and it doesn't pack as many BTU's/gallon as gasoline resulting in more fuel stops. Butanol on the other hand does not require any changes to our cars or distribution system. The process for producing it from plant sugars is well known. So this one sounds like the most acceptable candidate for replacing gasoline. Look here for more info: http://www.butanol.com/ Now for the Diesel fuel. Well there is a wealth of evidence that bio-diesel can run every bit as good in a diesel engine as petroleum based diesel plus it is environmentally friendly where regular diesel is not. It is also possible to produce it from Algae providing an alternative to the argument that good arable land will be used on any bio based fuel alternative.

Look here for more info: http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html

For a good, in-dept explanation of what bio-diesel is chemically try this link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=1006021014175&r=w&is_vote_given=true&pa=BpVqD13uBHMzU.qS4x0HTZsioUFrX6n4Q.3q0fu.Ol4lE7n.P4ay30..Rm3kEJrV_8TRfy1Vz77340dNirI-