nerp wrote:
xczvzsfad wrote:Using plants to power our cars? What better way to operate? I think it's great!
How about we use plants that aren't part of the food chain? Corn ethanol is a waste of time and money and food. Corn is a highly nutrient inensive crop, so you need to use more fertilizers and pesticides to get the crop to grow, which uses fuel. Then you have to harvest and transport it, more fuel. The you have to process it into ethanol and deliver it, more fuel. Once it is in the engine, it is less efficient than gas, so you have to use more of it to do the same amount of work. Thats an awful long way to go just to feel better about ourselves.
Personally, I think fuel cells and/or electricity are the way of the future for automobiles.
Fuel cells don't look very promising right now. Although they produce much much lower emissions than normal fuel, the technology is still very expensive. You also have to worry about building fuel cell recharging stations around the entire country.
Electric cars are not as expensive and are a good alternative, but you still have to worry about recharging stations as well.