Alternate fuel, and a cheap machine that can use it.

[Dr. KillGood]

Well I was at the gas station, and the gas is $3.49!?

Screw that, what can I use that is cheaper then gas? Also the gas is not my only concern because I do not want to buy a $25,000 dollar car to use the fuel.

Here is a checklist I made for what I would like.
[ ]Something that can be used in a normal gasoline powered car?
[ ]Cheap to buy?
[ ]Can I make it myself?
[ ]Does it give as much power as gasoline?

So I saw this one thing where a solar powered thing could make fuel out of water or something? Cant remember what it was tho. )^=
I think it was a gas fuel tho. (as in not liquid)

[Triton]

some stations carry E85 ethanol which, while its not a permanent answer to our eventual fuel crisis, is significantly cheaper than gas (gas here is 3.39 for silver, 3.50 for regular and 3.70 for premium) whereas ethanol here the last time i looked was at or under 3$ a gallon or so. as to running it in a regular car it can be done but requires modification of the vehicle to do so. as with every other alternative fuel source, diesel cars can run on filtered used vegitable oil (like from resturants and stuff) but require slight modification to work that way and it doesnt work if its real cold out unless you have a tank heater for it. you can also run internal combustion engines on LPG and natural gas, hydrogen gas and so forth but it is expensive to set up a car to do it. basically your stucks with gasoline or diesel and their alternatives (biodiesel, ethanol and vegitable oils) or spending a LOT of money on an electric car, i wish steam cars would make a comeback, with todays technology they could make them very efficient, considering they could get 15mpg burning just about damn near anything (natural gas, fuel oil, kerosene, gasoline etc, mainly fuel oil) had massive ammounts of torque and power as well and this was in the 1890s-1920s!

[khaag]

What about propane? I'm sure you can get a cheap propane truck.

[Dr. KillGood]

What about propane? I'm sure you can get a cheap propane truck.

Propane truck?

Also that stuff always makes me think its gonna explode!

[WhatULive4]

Grab yourself a diesel vw. Then use used fryer oil from fast food joints to fuel it. Most fast food places will give it to you for free. Saves them from having to pay to dispose of it. Do some research on it there is a LOT of information out there on the web.

[Dr. KillGood]

Grab yourself a diesel vw. Then use used fryer oil from fast food joints to fuel it. Most fast food places will give it to you for free. Saves them from having to pay to dispose of it. Do some research on it there is a LOT of information out there on the web.

Yeah but with a VW when a part breaks they cost a f**kton to replace because they are from overseas.

[Xerino]

yeah gas is at $3.80 for unleaded here and $4.19 a gallon for Diesel, I was actually thinking about converting my Diamondback mountain bike to a 35 mph 120 MPG moped, the engine kit comes with everything needed for around $200

[evilteddy]

My family had our car converted to LPG when the Australian government was offering a $2000 rebate because its more environmentally friendly. Now the rebate has gone and we're paying 65cents a litre as opposed to $1.50 a litre for petrol with pretty much the same mileage out of the same amount of fuel. If your'e going to have a car for a long time LPG is a good alternative that will pay itself back.

[Sparkfist]

Natural gas. It's cheap, plentiful and can run in a internal combustion engine with little or no modifications. The only draw back you will have is that there is not a perfected way to use natural gas in cars, namely storage.

If you can get the storage of natural gas issue solved, you have a clean burning vehicle that will likely get better mileage then it would on gasoline.

You can look at diesel if you can get your hands on used vegetable oil. The stuff is either cheap or free, and with only minor chemical refining you can get bio-diesel which can cost less then $1 per gallon and helps the engine run better by lubricating the engine parts.

If you can't afford the tools to refine vegetable oil and make bio-diesel you can pore filtered used vegetable oil into the engine. That is if the engine is hot. If you try it when the engine is cold it will only clog it and not ignite. As well bio-diesel will gel at temperates higher then petrol based so it not good for areas or temperatures that are below freezing.

Hope this helps you a little.

[Kurt_]

Somwhere on PopSci.comis a way to make your own cheap biofuel

[HBN]

Hydrogen. Fill your car up from a filtered water system. Doesn't get much more energy efficient / "green" than that.

There was a guy would found a way to harness water for all sort of things. Including welding! He took the same unit, and put it on his car and got over a hundred miles per QUART of water (If my memory serves me correctly).

I wish I could remember the guys name. But I'm sure a Google search for "Water welding" would pull it up.

Good luck.

[benheck]

The alternative fuel of the future is LESS METAL.

Gas still has the best (literal) bang for your buck vs other methods. Hydrogen takes electricity to produce, electricity comes from coal (at least a natural resource in America) and thus is robbing Peter to pay Paul. (Since they refuse to go nuclear) At least electricity is cheap... FOR NOW. (Remember, gas was at a record low only 6 years ago)

Don't even get me started on batteries. How "green" is it to dispose of a huge battery pack when it dies in 5 years?

But with cheap gas for the better part of 20 years consumers demanded more and more crap get piled into cars and that all adds weight. Remember when AC was a luxury? A lot of you kids probably don't. Things like sunroofs are BS too, the glass weighs more than metal. Throw in a motor attached to everything (power cup holders can't be far off) and you're moving a tank down the street.

This trend of "tank vehicles" was borne of a desire for safety - but how safe is it to pay $3.50 a gallon? Your kids won't die in a wreck but you can't afford to feed them. It's funny how all car ads in the past pushed safety, now you never hear that word, just MPG. Here's a clue - DRIVE BETTER and you'll be safe. Also, with less tanks on the road smaller cars become safer by proxy.

I've thought for a while, if cars were electric the best thing might be a system of wireless energy transmission along roads. Thus cars wouldn't need much in the way of batteries, which are heavy as well as expensive and "ungreen".

I also think it's interesting (and completely predictable) that despite all the "green" and ecological rhetoric over the years people only seem to care (now)impe when energy costs go up. The almighty dollar, root of all progress.

Sorry to ramble on but this is a topic I have a lot of interest in, and I also sincerely think anyone who expects any politician to solve these problems come November deserves the non-solution they'll get.

As always, ENGINEERS will save the day. We should put one in office.

[Sparkfist]

Well Ben did summarize nearly everything.

To add more fuel to the fire. If we want a better more fuel efficient mode of transportation, we have to get rid of the internal combustion engine. The internal combustion engine even when using hydrogen is only using 30% of the available energy. So really you can't expect to get better then that.

As of now, Ben's also right on that hybrid cars are kind of counter productive in that you have a massive motor and batteries, So the little 4-cylinder in your hybrid is going to have to push a lot when it turns that motor (to charge batteries) and move the car.

As for electric cars, lets put it this way. Majority of the time when you go to cross the street do you just listen to see if there is traffic or do you actually look? Electric cars make almost no sound so it can lead to kids mistakingly running out in front of them, and so getting hurt. So we either add a noise maker or look into more law suits.

Really I want to know if they'll get back to working on the nuclear power car. They tried working on the concept back in the 1950's. Lets see if they can get us all moving around with 10 lbs. of U-235 under the hood. I can see the add now.
"Hey that got a Hemmie?"
"No, it's got some Uranium."
"Damn, that's got some power then!"
Cue the nuclear car leaving the line with a mushroom cloud appearing where it was standing.

[HBN]

Look up Tata Motors. $1200-$1500 will get you a car - Called the Nano - that gets 50 MPG, and tops out around 80 MPH. But you'll have to go without electric windows (Not a huge loss), electric locks (Ditto), radio (Meh... Put your own in, if you really need it), heat (Run a space heater off a car battery and one of those 12vdc-120vac converters) and AC (Not a big loss. Thats why the windows roll down), and passenger-side mirror.

Sure, theres import fees. But its still less than pretty much anything on the market.

It seats five people.

[Sharp Sapphire]

Anyone who recommends E85 fuel needs to be shot. E85 would wreck the food supply.