If you’re interested in using renewable fuel, you may be wondering what alternative fuels options you can choose from. You’ve come to the right place because we’re going to discuss the different renewable fuels. Let’s take a look at what they are.
Ethanol
Ingredients that are a staple to many people’s diets are also used to make ethanol fuel. This fuel can be made from barley, wheat, and corn. In order to increase the octane levels, this solution is blended with gasoline. This helps to improve the emissions quality.
- Pros: Only uses renewable materials.
- Cons: Linked to increasing in food prices.
Natural Gas
Natural gas is one of the most common fuel sources. This is because it is widely available in most countries around the world. Many people rely on this fuel source to heat their homes and power their cars.
- Pros: This fuel produces less harmful emissions than gas and diesel when used in automobiles.
- Cons: While this fuel is natural, the process creates methane which is harmful to the environment and contributes to global warming.
Electricity
Electric vehicles are becoming more common because they don’t use harmful fuels or gases. While electricity isn’t technically a fuel, it does give power to cars, so it has made our list. Electric vehicles are powered by a battery that gets charged by using an electrical source. The electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen creates electricity that powers the vehicles.
- Pros: A very efficient energy source that doesn’t cause pollution.
- Cons: Electricity leaves a heavy carbon footprint because it’s generated from sources like coal and natural gas.
Hydrogen
If you drive a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, you may be able to use hydrogen as a renewable fuel. It is common to make a renewable fuel by mixing hydrogen with natural gas. Electric vehicles also rely on hydrogen for power because of the reaction it has with oxygen.
- Pros: Clean fuel with no harmful emissions.
- Cons: This source is more expensive and difficult to put into place.
Propane
Do you look forward to barbeque season every summer? If so, you probably use propane fuel to heat up the barbeque. This is the most common fuel used for cooking and is also a common choice for heating buildings and fueling cars. This fuel is simply a by-product of crude oil refinement and natural gas processing. It is also known as liquified petroleum gas.
- Pros: Well-developed practices for propane transport, storage, and distribution in many countries.
- Cons: Contributes to global warming because methane is produced during processing.
Biodiesel
Have you ever wondered why restaurants and cafeterias save the used cooking oil? They aren’t planning on using it for cooking anymore. Instead, it serves a very important purpose. Biodiesel is made from cooking oils, and it can be made from animal fats or vegetable oils.
It is possible to blend biodiesel with petroleum diesel to use in most engines. However, if you want to use pure biodiesel, you can modify the vehicle’s engine to make this possible.
- Pros: Allows vehicles to run without producing harmful emissions in the air, and the fuel is completely biodegradable.
- Cons: As of now, the production and distribution methods are limited.
Methanol
Methanol is a renewable fuel; however, it is much less common these days. It can only be used with certain engines, and now manufacturers are no longer making these vehicles.
- Pros: It is predicted that methanol could play an important role in the future to use with hydrogen in fuel-cell vehicles.
- Cons: Methanol-powered vehicles are no longer available on the market.
