Change? Why not natural gas hybrids?
New fuel, new batteryStarting Wednesday, the Pickens Plan will kick off a virtual march to push Congress and the White House towards a greater embrace of natural gas and wind power.
President Obama, however, has indicated that natural gas isn't an option. It's the electric car or nothing, but is that really wise?
I'm certainly not arguing against plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. It just seems to me that scaling up production of these vehicles is going to take much more time than most advocates are willing to accept. Likewise, many of these vehicles are going to be consuming dirty coal for decades.
Thus, shouldn't natural gas be at least part of the conversation? And, to protect the drive towards electrification, the program could be driven by natural gas hybrid vehicles, which keeps investment into battery technology rolling while replacing foreign oil with domestic, cleaner natural gas.
Certainly having big dreams of solar power plants in the Southwest powering America's fleet of plug-ins via a super-grid are worth pursuing, but such a plan isn't going to happen over night. And the costs of making this happen far more quickly are probably more expensive than most tax payers would accept.
Thus, couldn't natural gas, especially focused around hybrids, be a bridge off foreign oil while electrification is developed and scaled?
Labels: electric cars, Hybrid Vehicles, natural gas
posted by Dahcredyns at
10:04 AM
12 Comments:
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that's causing global sea rise. We should be getting off fossil fuels not trying to use more.
But if we had to use natural gas resources, we could easily convert it into methanol and then covert the methanol into high octane gasoline using the Mobil Oil MTG process the way New Zealand did back in the 1980s.
http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/
well, using natural gas is about using a different fossil fuel, not more fossil fuels. still, don't most syn fuels utilize a certain amount of fossil fuel to become syn fuels?
still, i don't care that much about CNG, but i would support it as a short term bridge.
nonetheless, methanol might very easily become a viable biofuel via microbial electrolysis. instead of converting methanol into gasoline, why not start using methanol fuel cell vehicles?
Natural Gas MUST be a component of our move towards alternate energy vehicles! Obama is foolish for not listening to T. Boone Pickens.
If all the upcoming EV's and PHEV's end up being way overpriced, I would be inclined to go with a CNG, such as the Honda Civic GX. Heck, for the price of a Fisker, I could buy three!
The primary source for hydrocarbon synfuels should be nuclear energy, IMO, utilizing something similar to the Los Alamos labs Green Freedom concept:
Green Freedom
http://www.lanl.gov/news/newsbulletin/pdf/Green_Freedom_Overview.pdf
Gasoline from Air & Water
http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/11/gasoline-from-air-and-water_24.html
enigmatic-
while i agree with your points, my angle is a bit different.
there are a lot of people whom don't believe in hybrid cars and whom also believe that EVs are too futuristic, at least in terms of cost. yet, they would still like to fight against foreign oil dependency, and many i've spoken with are interested in natural gas.
certainly, natural gas isn't a perfect solution, but it seems better than the status quo, and it seems it could be part of a comprehensive energy program that could have a significant, almost-immediate impact on foreign oil dependency.
It's right that we should get off fossil fuels as soon as possible. But it will still take a while and natural gas is very popular in Europe.
An all electric car is powered by the national electric grid. The most common fuel for generataing electricity in the US is coal (60%). Natural gas produces less than 1/2 the greenhouse gases as coal for the same unit energy so a natural gas hybrid is far cleaner than a coal powered electric car. Natual gas is a bridge because is will take a lot of time to replace our coal infrastructure with renewables and our electric grid has to be upgraded in the process. If you want to make a big change is CO2 emmisions natural gas transportation is a big step.
- Steve in Denver
i'm with you Steve. i say we should mandate that we end foreign oil dependency by 2025, for example. then make every car more efficient and multi-fueled. if automakers were making natural gas hybrids, all the battery technology needed by EVs and PHEVs would still be developed.
then the money made ending foreign oil dependency could then be utilized to fund greener energy production.
Natural gas is perfect! This is such a great opportunity, here's why: natural gas is around 90% methane, a compound which can be produced by genetically engineered protists and bacteria which CONSUME CO2 and sunlight to produce it. If we start adapting cars to run on natural gas and develop an infrastructure for it, the transition to bio-methane will be much smoother than trying to make bio-gasoline substitute. Plus natural gas is cleaner and is a much better fuel if we must use fossil fuels for the time being.
Natural Gas = 20-30% less CO2 than gas/diesel, no particulates, ultra-low real pollution. 40% less CO2 than coal and no mercury. It is American, the pipeline infrastructure is here now, it is abundant, and the technology for transportation is here now. All other options depend upon unknown breakthroughs to be economic. It is the most efficient fuel from source to end user. CNG works in all respects NOW!
Electric cars are just a very inefficient way to burn natural gas or coal. You do realize that the juice has to come from someplace right?
GW or no, there is no data that shows that sea levels have risen at all.
There is no projection anywhere from anyone who knows what they are talking about that shows the elimination of fossil fuels.
You don't easily turn natural gas into Methanol - you build multi-million dollar plants that make the conversion and then you have to create a blend of gasoline and methanol, which is better than ethanol; 25% of the cost of ethanol is the natural gas used to run the boilers.
Interesting...
I have been toying with his idea for awhile and after reading these comments I would conclude the following.
Our country is in a deep financial mess with millions unemployed, trillions of government debt and no relief in sight.
Natural gas is abundant in our country, its cleaner and most people have access to it in one form or another.
Conversion to natural gas would create millions of long term jobs solving our debt crisis. If Obama had used the money he spent bailing everyone out on natural gas infrastructure we would be in great shape.
New infrastructure would include a new electrical grid right along side the natural gas grid. new natural gas fired electrical generation along the way... build it right the first time. Building... then tearing apart and re-building is what costs so much money.
Public transportation along the new grid should also be a consideration as well as communications. Dig one whole and put everything in at the same time...! Not dig 5 different holes for 5 different projects... SHEESH!
For GODS sake this is so simple!
It would not harm the coal industry, oil industry or any other industry for that matter.
We could export coal like there's no tomorrow. I have been to China several times and they love the stuff!
The enviromentalists would be tickeled to death!
Solar power should also be an important ingredient! its free energy. DAM!
Our government is supposed to be for the people not Wall Street!
The wealth that could be created is staggering! What comes after a Trillion...? Quadrillion...? Centillion...? Octillion...?
The infrastructure we have now was built to fight World War 2. It's time to update... If this country is going to compete!
There are smart people and selfish people. We should all pull together! In the same direction... what's good for our country... our people... our economy!
Sincerely,
"About to get mad"
Don't just get mad. Tell your neighbors. Make sure your politicians are representing your views, etc.
The more people that get mad, the better the chances for change.
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