Alternatives for fossil fuels

Currently, Kenya and other countries in the world are experiencing shortage in fossil fuel such as petrol and diesel for vehicles. This is evident by the long queues private and public service vehicle owners make to get this now rare commodity. However, this shortage is somehow advantageous to the environment since in the last few days, carbon emission has reduced to some extent.

Importantly, the shortage should act as a wake-up call to respective Governments and individuals to implement other alternatives especially the ecofriendly means to replace the current petrol and diesel extracted from crude oil. 

Such measures include:

Use of biofuels

Biofuels an alternative for petrol are made from corn and sugarcane, whereas biodiesel is made from vegetable oils and animal fats.

The best types are second generation biofuels produced from sustainable sources rather than those grown for food.

Electricity

However much expensive and impossible it may seem to implement the usage of electric vehicles in developing countries, it is the way to go and should be embraced.

Steam

These are 'external combustion engines' where the fuel is combusted away from the engine to help lower emissions. They have been in existence since19th century and were replaced by models with internal combustion engines.

Heat

Two-thirds of the energy generated by petrol or diesel is wasted as heat.

Thermoelectric technology, which converts heat into electricity, can help reduce this and is already under development by several car makers.

One solution is to use thermoelectric panels to convert waste exhaust pipe heat into electricity, to minimize fuel consumption.

Hydrogen

With hydrogen emitting no harmful gas but water, it is suitable for usage in our vehicles.

BMW, a car brand, however, already sells hydrogen cars and it has recently been announced that New hydrogen cars 'will be sold in UK'.

 This can be considered for long term solution for cars since it has zero carbon emissions and overcomes the limitations of onboard batteries.

 

Air

Compressed air can replace petrol in a combustion engine to drive the pistons and produce power.

Stored in 4500psi tanks, air as an energy source is much less energy-dense but does produce zero tailpipe emissions.

Several concepts have been mooted over the years and some car makers such as Tata have even proposed mainstream air-powered cars.

Nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen stored in a pressurized tank can be heated to produce high-pressure gas which can be used to drive a piston or rotary engine.

It however remains a less efficient energy carrier than fossil fuels as it requires electricity for its production.

In conclusion, it is worth noting that the transition will not happen overnight. It’s a process which requires time and resources. Therefore, countries can use the experimental method to see what works for them depending on their capability to maintain their choice’s production as well as importation to curb similar shortages that may arise after implementation.

 

Reference

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/emissions/alternative-fuels/