A Car That Can Run on Five Fuels from Volvo
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 06.12.06
As part of a sustainability initative, Volvo has created a prototype vehicle that can run on no less than five different fuel types. The fuels it can accept are: hythane (10% hydrogen and 90% methane), biomethane, natural gas (CNG), bioethanol E85 (85% bioethanol and 15% gasoline) and regular gasoline. Hythane consists of 10% hydrogen and 90% methane, a blend that has tested most effective for this system. The new concept was introduced at the Michelin Challenge Bibendum 2006. The whole car is optimized for high performance, driving on any of the five different fuels, said Mats Morén, Project Leader Engine at Volvo Car Corporation. The Multi-Fuel vehicle contains one large and two smaller tanks of totally 98 litres for gaseous fuels (hythane, biomethane and CNG), and one 29-litre tank for liquid fuels (bioethanol E85 and gasoline).
:: Via Groovy Green via AutoMotoPortal
Hmm... I wonder why no diesel? I'm thinking straight biodiesel trumps all those fuels, or am I wrong?
Well, I don't know if you're right or wrong about whether biodiesel is a better fuel than all of the other options, but I imagine that diesel isn't included in the fuel options is because diesel engines are substantially different than gasoline (and ethanol and CNG/biogas/etc) engines. Howstuffworks.com has a good writeup:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/diesel.htm
I could be wrong (and I hope someone who knows about engines will correct me), but I don't think diesel engines can be adapted to run on anything but fuels that will readily burn in the diesel cycle, which I guess are petroleum diesel, biodiesel, and oils like "Straight Veggie Oil".
This Volvo car sounds real cool. Why aren't we tapping
the nations sewage plants and hog farms to capture methane gas? Storage tanks could be built to store the
gas and removed with valves to power these types of vehicles as well as city vehicles to cut polution. Other countries are doing this to power vehicles and\heat and cook. Isn't
methane the same a natural gas or propane?
Sounds good enough for me. I'd even like to try it out. This may be another YCC Concept in the making.
I expect to see one in your parking spot as soon as it's available.
Diesel Engines can run on the following:
Petroleum based diesel
OR BioDiesel - which can me made from any animal fat or any veggies
OR straight veggie oil (in any form) Corn oil, veggie oil, peanut oil, hemp oil, etc...
OR Jet-A fuel
OR kerosine
Are any of those fuel types readily available? This seems to be putting the car(t) before the horse(power): let's make alternative fuels as accessible as gasoline so there is a market for cars like this.
Well I am going to agree with everyone else BioDiesel is the better choice. I just recently learned about BioDiesel and its good for the environment and its good for the car, i think that BioDiesel would've been the best way to go.