Your fuel alternatives
In his column in the June edition of the Open Road e-zine, NRMA President Alan Evans discusses the need for real fuel alternatives so Australian motorists do not have to rely so heavily on petrol.
“The time has come for Australia to reduce its dependence on the petroleum industry once and for all,” Mr Evans says.
Australian motorists are enduring one of the most dramatic jumps in petrol pricing ever seen, with petrol reaching record highs. And, with petrol prices predicted to hit 170 cents per litre within weeks, things are only going to get worse.
Most manufacturers are developing vehicles run on hybrids and, to a lesser extent, alternative fuels in response to rising oil prices and pressure to go ‘green’. Last month, the world’s first mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid, the Toyota Prius, reached a million worldwide sales. Toyota has also announced it will begin production on a hybrid Camry sedan here in Australia in 2010. BMW is busy developing engines that run on alternative fuels, recently unveiling a hydrogen-powered 7-series sedan at the 2008 SAE World Congress.
But is the matter being addressed with the urgency it deserves? Real fuel alternatives are still in the developmental stages, meaning we’ll have to endure ever-increasing petrol prices for a few more years at least.
What fuel alternatives would you like to see? Will you be catching public transport more than you used to or do you have your own way of minimising your dependence on petrol?
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June 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
There are existing alternatives that we should have in the Australian marketplace already. There are low cost electric commuters such as the Riva (G-Wiz in th UK) that aren’t allowed here. Brazil has combination fuel vehicles such as the Fiat Multipla that can run on ethanol, a 50-50 mix or petrol – that aren’t available here.
And the option that I think has a lot of promise for right now is CNG (compressed natural gas) – at least as an interim measure until non-fossil fuel vehicles are mainstream. Honda already make a CNG Civic sold in Asia and North America, and there are home refuelling kits available as well. Australia has vast reserves, pipes run to homes all across the country… and it is available now! We just need some incentive for Auto companies to offer the vehicles here and a major service station chain or two, to offer CNG fills.
The world does have alternatives, it is just that Australia doesn’t!
June 11th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
We need to get off petroleum asap. There are alternatives out there, and I know that they had good, viable electric cars (and no, they weren’t slow! and they had a range of 120km on one charge, more than enough for the bulk of urban motorists) in California in the early 00′s until the oil industry squashed them (literally, as it turns out!). For anyone who’s paranoid about running out of charge we could have hydrogen, young Australian mechanics are working it out for themselves!!!
We have the technology to keep happily motoring past the oil age, so let’s get on and get into it! Why let the oil barons continue to rule the world!!
June 11th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Instead of giving a business multi millions of dollars for cars they are already developing, why couldn’t the federal government invest this money, and more, into the development of alternate fuels?????
June 11th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
My local Service Station sells 85% ethanol & 15% unlead petrol for less than a Dollar, most fuel injected car can run on it (or so they say )after you have a special type of computer fitted costing about $300 (which they say you can install yourself) However, I can’t find any real information regarding this, such as cost and availabilityof the unit. Is Australia really serious about using alternative fuels
June 11th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Natural gas powered buses have been in Geelong for decades. This is the way for Australia to go. What is holding us back? There is never any comment about this alternative fuel.
There is enough natural gas in Australia to power our transport for decades.We would not be dependant on foreign countries & our economy would not suffer from possible future shortages of diesel & petrol.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I own a turbo diesel 4 x 4 wagon and I like many others no doubt am becoming increasingly frustrated with the price of diesel! Despite what the petroleum companies are saying about diesel prices as compared to petrol and how they are trying to justify a fuel that should be far cheaper to produce than petrol, the price is consistently dearer.
I’m wondering when someone is going to do something about marketing bio-diesel in sufficient quantity that all motorists driving diesel powered vehicles can get access to? I’m also wondering what the cost per litre is going to be and are the fuel producers going to make up another cock and bull story to justify ripping the end user off despite the fact that individuals can manufacture bio-diesel for approx 64 cents a litre?
June 11th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Australia has the potential to be more than self sufficient in bio-diesel but keep the federal government out of it so as not to go over the top by adding excise to the price and keep the big oil companies out of it so that we are not being continually ripped off.
Just the bio-diesel is enough, and let the petrol people worry about their problems. Keep transport rolling and supply to the farmers at a respectable price to keep our costs from adding to inflation by not having diesel costs as a limiting factor.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Andrew is so obviously right. I was astounded some time ago to learn that we sell the gas to Japan and China at a reputed 6 cents a litre. At the same time importing vehicle fuels at exorbitant prices. But no matter at what price, why are we exporting any at all? It is not an infinite resource. We need to persuade the government to encourage all service stations to install and sell either LPG or CNG (LPG has higher calorific value) We also need assurances on costs. At somewhere between 50 and 70 cents a litre, there is enough to provide sufficient tax and profit to keep us all relatively happy, certainly compared with the price of petrol and diesel. The New Zealanders can refill from their gas supply at home. why can’t we be a smart!
June 11th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
A problem with all alternate fuels is the infrastructure for distribution. With our vast natural gas reserves ,CNG is readily available.( See Andrew above) But how large would the tank need to be to hold enough CNG ( at a realistic pressure for the engineering involved) to give a reasonable range?
In the longer term : hydrogen has great appeal-but would need to be produced by electrolysis of water using electricity produced from solar energy. ( & geothermal ; wind generators ?) This would need vast & expensive infrastructure- but the outlay would surely be preferable to fighting “oil wars” Hydrogen burns to produce non-polluting water!
The H would need to be highly compressed ( again how large would the tank need to be?) or dissolved in a solventfrom which it could be released as it is drawn off.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:25 am
I live in the Blue Mtns west of Sydney.
I’d like to see how up here, we can set up a safe and secure (and vetted) car pooling system.
For instance, on Mon & Fri I take my car to Earlwood from Springwood and I’m the only person in the car.
On Tues and Thur I drive to Penrith again as driver-only.
The system would need to be integrated – perhaps via Noticeboard on Open Road? so that a person can hitch a ride/pay for the ride so long as he/she doesn’t have a cold or flu virus either!!!
June 12th, 2008 at 8:59 am
The world, we, have the technology, it will take some very brave companies to do the research and be committed to stopping this ridiculous dependence on oil companies, we are almost at their whim. We knew this would happen….many years ago, why was no preparation taken seriously. The technology is there, ordinary everyday people are even resorting to their own research and implementation. Yes it is taking too long, different car options should be available now, i imagine toyota are very happy with prius sales right now as they are they are the only really viable option. The consumers know, we have known for years the damage that is generated towards the environment because of vehicles, it is so obvious that I am abhorred by the fact that it is only now due to increasing impact on our pockets that something is being done. Our reliance on these natural (global warming) sources is deplorable.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:23 am
I live in the country and drive 110 kilometres every day just to and from work. I’ve been using an ethanol blend fuel for some time now and my car runs very well if not better than it did on regular unleaded. I think there should be more of this fuel available. We have a vehicle on our farm that we’ve been running on ethanol for years and it runs better than some of these new cars on the road. If the price of ethanol blends was reduced more than the current 3 cents a litre I’m sure more people would use it.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:26 am
We in Australia have huge resouces on natural gas which we cheaply sell to Cina and Japan whilst using expensive and more polluting oil based fuels ourselves.
There are alrteady cars made to run on CNG and sold in Japan. The CNG is compressed to a liquid state and stored in a tank, very similar to LPG vehicles. All that is required is the infrastructure, which can also be home based if a gas supply is already connected, with use of a small compressor to fill the car while it is parked.
We also make a lot of aluminium here, which may be used for lightening automotive componentry, and it won’t rust, so the effective life of a car may be increased dramatically if aluminium structure and body panels were used.
It’s all so easy to find an interim solution before full electric cars make their mark, but where there’s no will, there’s no way.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I believe that the Federal Government’s increase on tax on luxury cars was a missed opportunity to send to the motorists of Australia the clear message about fuel usage. They should have dropped sales & import taxes on cars that use much less fuel than the average say Holden commodore and set a target for this incentive to to kick in at 7lt/100 km combined city/hwy. There should have been an increase in tax on cars and SUV’s i.e. F250 petrol , Hummers etc that guzzle fuel like blokes drinking beer at a bucks party. There needs to be a clear incentive & disincentive arrangements put in place to reduce comsumption of fossil fuels , WAKE UP PEOPLE THE ENERGY LARGESSE IS OVER . This strategy would at least extend reserves and give fuel alternatives more time to be developed .
June 12th, 2008 at 10:12 am
The technology for producing electric vehicles is already proven & several other countries are already using them. I suggest the NRMA & other motoring bodies begin to exert enormous pressure upon the Federal Govt. to give incentives for mass-producing electric vehicles. After all. most of our journeys in cars are less than the 100 or 120 km range of current electric cars.
If we are worried that we will have to burn more coal to produce the electricity to run the vehicles – remember that alternative sources of producing electricity are also being developed – wind, solar, tidal, wave, ocean currents, geothermal etc.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:07 am
My alternative to fuel would have been for the state and federal govts to actually prepare for such things as high petrol prices, overcrowded public transport and poor infrastructure years ago. And when I mean prepare, I mean have systems – alternatives – set up, ready and working.
But they didn’t, now the alternatives are next to non-existant, at least for the time being.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
An existing petrol car (perhaps bought cheaply with a dead motor) can be converted to electric for about $10K DIY or $16K commercially. Performance is just as good except for range which is limited to 60-80KM or so unless you pay extra for fancier lithium batteries. That could be your second car for around town. Only buy petrol or diesel for extended range when you head out of town in the other car. Paying extra for electricity from renewable sources still only costs around the same as buying 2 litres of petrol per 100KM. Even using coal the greenhouse gas produced is about half and the price is less. Governments could help by allowing overnight charging at off-peak rates or discount registration. An advantage over other energy sources is that electricity can be produced by whatever methods society deems most acceptable at the time (solar, coal, natural gas, hydro, nuclear, all the above, whatever) and, at least around town, electricity is already distributed. Your workplace, shopping centre or friends might allow you to plug in while you are parked.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Years ago I remember reading in the then Australasian Post about a reporter for that magazine was sitting at the traffic lights when the lights changed this truck that was next to him took of with only a whoosh whoosh sound so he followed it and found it had a 2 cylinder steam engine in it. It only had a small oil burner that heated the water and the water condenced back into the tank so there was no need for any more water than petrol you would require to run a normal car . I wonder what happened to it, one guess I suppose the oil co. bought them out. There is a kit available that a DYS. can convert any moter to run on part fuel and the Hydrogen out of water
June 13th, 2008 at 7:24 am
I think that we should be using more LPG in motor vehicles.
We have an abundance in Australia, whilst exporting most cheaply.
I have a Commodore that had travelled 50,000 kilometres when I converted it to LPG. It has since travelled another 235,000 on LPG without trouble. During the ten years it has had one LPG service, costing around $160. It costs half of the petrol bill to run. On a trip I have averaged 12 litres/100 km, equivalent to a petrol engine of 4.5 litres/100 km.
It is absolutely reliable and very cheap to run.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
There are several possible solutions to the current situation:
1/. Govt’s of the world must ban hedge trading of any fuel source. If reports are true, this form of trading has resulted in crude costing $80 per barrel more than it should be. It is also alledged that it is the banks that is behind this trading;
2/. Years ago the motor industry had the Button Plan which steered it to the high effeciency levels we now enjoy. We now need a national plan to steer this industry to alternate fueled vehicles with deadlines, including infrastructure to support it. This strategy must also include public transport.
3/. Vehicle manufacturers should have a reward system in place for building/importing alternate fueled vehicles. Ford has an LPG/CNG focus in europe, but we may not see it here. A similar reward system should be in place for buyers of these vehicles( no stamp duty, lower rego costs) to entice people to buy them.
June 14th, 2008 at 10:03 am
In europe 11 years ago there were fields and fields of govt supported canola (raipe seed) plants, friends on my tour only thought it was for margerine. As I discovered later they were using these fields for Bio-Deisel. Mobil in Germany was the first to sell bio-deisel at the bowsers a decade ago, which was developed by a man in Tasmania with the rights to his development about a decade ago. Yes it was even on 60 minutes!!
Notice how alot of european and asian car companies refined there deisel/turbo deisel motors in family cars economically. Now I still look at our empty fields and farms for decades here at home and think, our govt is useless and weak. Our farmers are literally dying with no crops or livestock on there farms and no water and we’re doing little about it.
Lets show these greedy “LITTLE BOYS CLUBS” aka oil companies, labours, liberals, democrats etc, that if we can brew beer and wines by the barrel loads, then we can easily make bio-deisel, alternative fuels and other means of automotive transport, that we (Australians) ARE resourcefull.
Heres a thought, why dont we get the breweries and wine makers to support us in this idea/venture, by means of it will $ave them in transport costs! ! ! Finally 3 cheers for Richard Branson for experimenting and succeeding one of his 767′s to run on vegetation based alternative fuel, with baking by Boeing and Rolls Royce aviation, Well Done.
June 16th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Some very good ideas and comments here, but it seems it is the converted preaching to the converted.
There needs to be action NOW, so is it possible, with the assistance of NRMA to organize and hold a public referendum particularly on the CNG & Ethanol options that ARE available.
In addition to harvesting Natural Gas for use as an alternative fuel we have Bio-Fuels that can easilyt be produced without the need to sacrifice food production ……….. with Sydney Water Corporation dumping TWO BILLION LITERS of treated sewage effluent PER DAY into the coastal waters, we have a bio-fuel industry gone begging ………. this nutrient rich water resource could be piped to central Australia and a sustainable bio-fuel industry could be established.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Prior to 1948 my Father worked for the British Oxygen Company in the UK. He said that they had a test car (Austin I think) running around the plant without fault for about 3 months using Hydrogen. Bought out by the oil companies of course.
Is this is right then why hasnt it been developed?
June 18th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I have been reading about using hydrogen which is mixed with petrol before it enters the combustion chamber. Apparently reducing fuel consumption by up to a half. It is a DIY kit available from a few sites on the internet, eg http://www.water4gas.com. Until we ween ourselves off fossile fuels this could be a viable alternative. Problem is, does it work, is it a scam. This is where the NRMA could be a great bonus as a motoring organisation for motorists and their best interests. NRMA could buy a couple of cheap cars and put this system to the test. Publish the results and if it is effective, everybody could get on board. If not, at least something was done which may give somebody else an idea to expand on.
June 18th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
How hard would it be to develop something small like a SmartCar, but fuel it with a barbie gas 9kg swap a bottle. These are available right across the country in every gas station. The mileage might not be too good but great town car.
June 18th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I saw on TV a car that ran on water: this seems like an eminently sensible alternative, possibly using filtered grey water? And where is the advertising for cars that don’t run on petrol: I haven’t seen any on TV or in newspapers; they certainly don’t figure in the used car sales.
It seems like they are toys for richies, rather than people with smaller pockets? I have taken to using public transport more, driving a whole lot less, and decreasing outings to cope with the slug in petrol prices.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Hybrid! What a poor choice for an Alternative.
How can this be a Green or intelligent option?
Firstly it costs more to buy a Hybrid car so you are behind from the first day, In terms of Fuel you will use just as much driving a hybrid than any car up to 2.0l or equiv engine as it is only when you are in standstill traffic does the Hybrid run on the battery. Not a real lot of your travelling is 40km/h , so you won’t really cut your fuel bill substantially….. Now don’t forget about those stupid batteries that need replacing after 2-3 years, They just end up on the scrap heap, oh and the cost to replace them.. ouch!
Hydrogen is the way of the future, it’s already started in Germany, this is where the funds for research and development need to go.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I was watching DW-TV the Journal News program from Germany on SBS Television recently and they had a story about an electric car that was going to be released on the market in Europe.The car would be able to go 320 kilometres before recharging and only required 3 hours to fully recharge the car to maximum capcity.
The price was going to be 65,000 euros ($106,996.50 AUD Australin Dollars) at the exchange rate of 1 Euro = $1.6461 (AUD) as at the 19/06/2008.
It is expensive but this seems to be the best option at the moment for the enviroment as I think Hybird cars are going to be an intermin measures by the car industry.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Natural gas has to be the way to go for Australia. It would not only be cheaper for motorists but could revolutionise industry and make us incredibly competitive internationally.
I can’t believe all the talk about hybrids nor the fact that governments are actually subsidising car manufacturers to produce them. I think that in 20-30 years people will look back and laugh at hybrids the way we laugh at the flying and amphibious cars produced in the 1950′s. Electric storage in batteries is very inefficient; the batteries will have to be replaced and disposed of; and in Australia the electricity is produced largely by coal! Its unbelievable that anyone would think they are a viable replacement for petrol.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I have successfully built an electrolyzer for my 1998 EL Falcon which produces hydrogen and oxygen from water and it is fed into the intake side of the engine. I think it is a big improvement to economy, exhaust emission and performance.
I challenge the NRMA to do some testing on this car to see if my claims are justified. I would be prepared to make the car available at an appointed time for exhaust analysis etc.
Noel
June 21st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I think it is useful to consider the oil debate in an historic perspective. As a young graduate engineer in 1973, and immediately after that years oil shock, I was asked to present a series of lectures to the transport industry on the Australian Bureau of Transport Economics research into oil and transportation. One fact I found interesting was that through out the 20th century the known reserves of world oil had consistently been approx. 30 years.
I have just Googled, and read a very detailed article in Wikipedia. In 30 years time there is a high probability we will be saying there is 30 years of world oil left! They also make the comment that “In many countries (particularly OPEC producers) the estimates may involve a great deal of political influence.”
While at University I filled my Holden for $2. With the 1973 oil shock it was $4+. This week I had little change out of $100. While at university (1968-71) the Mechanical Engineering Department was working on a hybrid car, and steam and hydrogen cars were under active consideration. Our lecturers were telling us that fosil fuels would lead to global warming. The debate is not new!
Hybrids may be a small part of the future, but I suspect that the fact with most certainty is that petrol prices will increase in the next 30 years at the same rate as the past 30; with a similar series of ‘shocks’ a decade apart, connected by simar periods of limited activity.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Re Noel Silvester’s electrolyzer, the energy required to split water to oxygen and hydrogen is the same as is available from their reaction back to water. If the energy is from the alternator, the energy must be robbed from the motor to electrolyze the water. This sounds like a ‘perpetual motion machine’ to me!
July 18th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Sir,
we want to convert our car to “water fuel ” technologies. So, we need the manufacturer of the kit or seller for it. Pls advice us.
thanks with regards
v,yuvaraj
July 21st, 2008 at 11:50 am
AAARRGHH!! @ GLENN CAMPBELL
PLease tell us all where you got your information on Hybrid cars and batteries? PLease, do share? Have you owned one? Have you spoken to a SINGLE hybrid owner that replaced their battery withint 2-3years? It DOES NOT HAPPEN!
Toyota Motor Corp australia have replaced 2 batteries… That’s right, two, and these were for vehicles 4 and 5 years old that were taxi-cabs – With 400,000 and 650,000klms on the clock respecively. And not ONLY that, TMCA have a comprehensive, 100% recycling program for ALL Hybrid parts, batteries included. Get your facts straight.
All this information is available from TMCA, Dealerships etc. And wait, you guessed it, on the net too!
I don’t mean this to be a personal dig, it is just frustrating that these un-truths are STILL being perpetuated.
Thanks,
Morgasshk
September 19th, 2008 at 3:32 am
I grow weary of closed minded experts. We have to be open to all options no matter how unlikely. Our best energy solutions are likely to come from small r&d companies or even out of someone’s garage workshop.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:02 am
This link has cars that can and cant use E10/E5 petrol.
http://www.fcai.com.au/publications/all/all/all/3/capability-of-vehicles-to-satisfactorily-operate-on-ethanol-blend-petrol.
hope its helpful
November 15th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
To Noel Silvester. I too have a 1998 EL Falcon and have looked into this hydroxy gas, browns gas, thing and have wanted to talk and meet someone that has done this successfully. Would like to contact you and have a natter and see this for myself. Especially the part about having to overide the MAF and MAP sensors for the economy. I live in western Sydney. My email is nesp50@yahoo.com.au. Please contact.