Future Fuels

Biogas

Biogas, composed largely of methane and carbon dioxide, is an exciting player in the field of emerging, renewable fuels chiefly because of its produc… Read More

Ethanol

Ethanol (ethyl alcohol), also known as grain alcohol, is the same ‘alcohol’ found in all alcoholic drinks. Bioethanol is simply ethanol that has … Read More

Synthetic Fuels

"Synthetic fuel" generally refers to a liquid fuel obtained from a specific feedstock such as natural gas, coal, or a biomass. photo by Lars Sundst… Read More

Dimethyl-Ether [DME]

Dimethyl-ether is gaining a foothold as a transportation fuels, in part because it shares some useful similarities with liquid petroleum gas (LPG) … Read More

Dimethylfuran [DMF]

Not much is known at the moment about DMF except that is seems to have a leg up on ethanol in a number of capacities. Researchers at the University o… Read More

Ultra-low Sulfur Diesel [ULSD]

ULSD is simply conventional diesel fuel with a lower sulfur content than diesel. The EPA currently requires that most of the diesel fuel in the … Read More

Hydrogenation-Derived Renewable Diesel [HDRD]

HDRD is considered a ‘second-generation biodiesel’ because it refines fats and vegetable oils in an oil refinery. It’s still in the developme… Read More

Biobutanol

Butanol (butyl alcohol) is an organic compound used largely as an industrial solvent. However, when it is produced using biological materials (biomas… Read More

Natural Gas

Natural gas is a fossil fuel extracted from oil wells. It is composed of at least 85% methane; other hydrocarbons and water vapor make up the rest. A… Read More

Methanol

Also known as methyl alcohol, carbinol, and wood alcohol, methanol is simply methane gas minus one hydrogen molecule, which is replaced by a so-called… Read More

photo by Nyboer Creative

The right fuel for the right time

The question of how to power a vehicle is a core issue for designers and developers of personal transportation. Ever since Dutch physicist Christian Huygens began to experiment with the internal combustion engine in the 17th century, the problem of a suitable fuel has vexed designers, inventors and engineers.

Huygens tried gunpowder; Switzerland's Francois Isaac de Rivaz combined hydrogen and oxygen in 1807; France's Nicholas Cugnot employed steam in 1769; Siegfried Marcus of Austria designed an early gasoline engine in 1864, an idea that culminated in Karl Benz's patent for a gas-fueled car in 1886.

Electricity was also a viable power source for early automobiles. In the 1830's, Sibrandus Stratingh of the Netherlands began the development of electric vehicles. Though their development came later than that of combustion-powered cars, electric carriages caught on quickly and even outsold gasoline-powered cars in 1899.

All of these pioneers employed the well-established concepts of gears, wheels and drive shafts but struggled to find a fuel that was combustible but not explosive, portable yet powerful, and, perhaps most importantly, widely available and affordable.

Today's automobile designers face the same obstacle. The cars of the future, for the most part, will require a transfer of power from a motor to wheels that roll on the ground. The question of fuel, however, looms larger than ever, as environmental degradation and oil scarcity push innovation like never before.