Affordable And Sustainable Fuel:
September 2009
By Steven JamesWhether it is in response to the concept of peak oil or the price associated with the coming emission trading scheme, humanity will need to change its transport fuel. While such a change will be viewed by many as desirable, it will come at a cost and governments world wide will need to consider to what degree they will help the vulnerable. A critical challenge will be maintaining equity since the price changes will affect all, irrespective of their resources and their capacity for adaption.. While the electric car may seem extremely attractive to the environment, it is only one sector of our transport industry, and even if car makers throughout the world suddenly switched production into solely making electric cars, it would take decades for them to supplant fossil fuel cars as the dominant vehicle on the road. Widespread use of electric cars would simply move the dirty energy problem out of sight, from the petrol station and exhaust pipe to the power station. Clearly, if all our electricity was generated by nuclear power or by solar photovoltaics, the advantages of electric cars would be compelling, but if the majority of electricity is generated by coal fired power stations this would make the situation substantially worse. If zero or near zero emission electricity generation technologies such as CO2 capture and storage fail to deliver the expected level of greenhouse gas abatement, this will have a consequential negative impact on the ability of electricity as a fuel to reduce transport sector emissions. Furthermore the batteries have always been a sticking point for electric cars, the major concerns being weight, speed of charging, power storage capability and safety. A large number of lead acid batteries in a car would never be an ideal solution. Most current electric cars use nickel hydrogen batteries, but the emerging lithium ion technology seems to provide a good platform, being more compact and environmentally friendly than nickel hydrogen. But car makers say that they cannot make the technology commercially viable yet, they have still got to boost range, improve durability and bring down costs. Until there is an infrastructure broad and clean enough to support the cars, this technology will remain a fringe technology with decades of research still needed. But despite the uncertainty surrounding electric cars for now, there is definitely a future need for their continued growth. The hydrogen car and it's commercially viable development is facing much the same technical hurdles as the electric car, technology such as fuel cell development, hydrogen generation, storage and deployment infrastructure is still needed. But hydrogen as a transport fuel is a much better alternative suited to the heavy transportation sector than electricity, hydrogen powered fuel cells for vehicles such as ships, trains and large trucks instead of cars is the direction best suited for hydrogen as a transport fuel. Because these heavy freight vehicles have higher emissions, this strategy could provide greater air quality benefits. On board hydrogen storage would be less of a problem also, and it would require a smaller fuel distribution network. In addition, setting up a completely new infrastructure to widely distribute hydrogen for car owners could cost at least $5,000 per car, which is probably not the cheapest strategy for a transport fuel and would take many decades to complete. But can humanity and the environment survive the delay of these not yet commercially viable technologies. The answer is no, what we need now is a proven transition technology, and we do have one. Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), LPG has a long and varied history in transportation applications. It has been used in rural and farming settings since its inception as a motor vehicle fuel. It is the third most commonly used fuel in the world, behind petrol and diesel. More than four million vehicles fueled by LPG are in use around the world in light, medium, and heavy duty applications. LPG holds about 86 percent of the energy of petrol and so requires more storage volume to drive a range equivalent to petrol, but it is price competitive on a cost per kilometer driven basis. A study by the Australian National University in 2001 showed LPG vehicles achieved 16% better fuel efficiency and burn cleaner than similar vehicles using unleaded petrol. Certainly this fact and the lower cost of this product makes it an appealing choice. Furthermore there is already a well developed deployment infrastructure in place in most developed countries, add to this is the ability to blend hydrogen with LPG and you have a viable alternative to pure fossil fuels. These blends offer a valid opportunity for tackling sustainable transportation, in view of the future stringent emission limits for road vehicles and the delay in other viable clean technologies, world governments need to take the lead and require their transport fleets to convert to LPG. They should also compel vehicle manufactures to produce and sell LPG only vehicles in ever increasing numbers. Securing access to affordable and sustainable fuel in the future will be crucial to our way of life and the for the sustainability of our world. News & Opinion
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