Every week we fill up our cars with gas so that we can get to work, to school, get our groceries or go anywhere we please. However, as gas prices skyrocketed over the summer, there was much talk about switching to alternative energies. There many different types of alternative energies, some better then others, which all point to a safer and more efficient future. Although many of these alternative fuels such as hydrogen and ethanol, they will not necessarily be in used in full power in the auto industry any time soon.
Everything around us ranging from cars to lawnmowers runs on gasoline, and therefore it would be impossible to completely switch from gasoline to another source right away. On predominantly every corner you drive by there is a gas station and therefore, when a new energy source such as hydrogen or ethanol is introduced, it will be very hard to refill. In addition to this, there will still be gasoline cars around so they will also need gas stations, and that would either require both to be readily available or for the current gas stations to be remodeled and modified to support gas as well as hydrogen and or ethanol. Although currently, there are both ethanol and diesel cars and trucks out there, there are not too many gas stations around that carry both of those fuels. In fact, ethanol fuel is mostly available in the Midwest, where there are corn farms. In addition to the inconvenience of filling up your alternatively powered vehicle, there is the question of whether or not an alternatively powered vehicle is any better then the current gasoline engine vehicles out there.
Although both hydrogen and Ethanol have been praised, there is a problem with both of these. As Ethanol has been as getting a lot of attention lately, it really is not as good as it sounds. The main problem with ethanol is that it is not very efficient. First of all, making Ethanol takes a lot more energy then making gasoline, and although both of them have to be refined, gasoline is simply pumped out of the earth while ethanol has to be grown. To grow ethanol also takes energy as well as many chemicals which pollute the earth, among which are fertilizers and fossils fuels used in tractors and such to harvest it. It has been calculated that even if all of the corn production was turned into producing ethanol, that it would only be sufficient enough for about 12% of all of the fuel demands in America. Even if by some new technique we were able to grow twice as much corn, we still would not be able to have enough to meet the demands of the fuel required to run the country. However, we are forgetting the main part about ethanol, and that is that it is made from corn, a food that everyone uses. With a higher demand for corn, our food prices would also go up and therefore by solving once crisis we would start another. Just as Ethanol, Hydrogen too has drawbacks.
Although many critics rave that hydrogen cars essentially produce water as an exhaust, there is a problem with it. Water vapor is the gaseous form of water, and is also a greenhouse gas; in fact, it is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than the CO2 produced from burning gasoline. Therefore, with both of these alternative energies there is a trade off, and generally not a very beneficial one. Along with problems with the alternative fuels themselves, you also run into the problem of alternative energy producers.
Many of the big corporate companies out there have a solid base in the petroleum business and therefore are not welcoming any new comers. These companies have developed a secure transaction and profit through which they cycle. For alternative energies to come into play there would have to be a new person on the block who would be able to fund and compete with these big fat oil companies. In addition with large corporate oil companies, many countries also base their economies on exporting oil. It should be kept in mind that the US is the worlds biggest oil importer.
Consequently, although there are many ideas out there about alternative energies, most of these energies just sound good, but are really not as beneficial as they sound. With ethanol and hydrogen power, there is more pollution then that from gasoline. Another factor is that changing from our current fuels to these alternative fuels would be a mere inconvenience. As a result, it is safe to say that the world is not going to shift from fossil fuels to any other alternative fuel anytime soon.
