Diesel power

[derik]

This was an awesome read and best thread so far with so much word of wisdom shared from different perspectives.

I never knew about alcohol / ethanol / vegetable oil / bio were used to run our dear engines. 

[salmanahmed]

I totally agree with you @derik. this has been a good post with so many thought provoking ideas and stats shared. Looking at all this, there is still hope for us ... the citizens of planet earth 

[treks]

5 hours ago, ging said:

I am from Mars, but your thinking of saving planet Earth need more rational approach than blaming the companies for marketing their products. If that ever has to happen, then companies doing more harm to health by selling junk food, soda, cigarettes, alcohol would be banned and not the car companies.

Marketing is existing since 1800 and it's the only way to sell their product by persuasive manner. Common wake up, you are just 200 years late to realize that it's wrong.

Rational approach? When last did you see  smog hanging over a city- smog caused by cars burning fossil fuels?

2 hours ago, Saleem said:

I think that blaming petrol & diesel engines for global warming is a big scam.....

can you compare the results and consciousness for using engines (globally) for 20 years Vs. one nuclear or Hydrogen explosion experiment by any country? have you ever heard about that experiment oxygen burning evaluating?

Moreover go back for history to the beginning of motors industry and you would find out that all petrol engines was designed basically to run on Alcohol (Ethanol) which is simply a renewable energy and available in some parts of the world as a bio-fuel (E65 & E85) and the most common fuel in Latin America and some how We All world wide was miss-leaded to Oil based fuels by oil companies wold wide before 100 years ago and we still following them!

Sorry to disappoint you but truth is always shocking!!         

Scam? Of course, cars are not the only cause of global warming, and there is some evidence to suggest that the large number of cows and sheep on Earth releasing methane into the atmosphere cause more damage than cars do. Doesn't mean that burning fossil fuels in cars don't contribute though.

As for ethanol as fuel- there is simply not enough plant metrial on the planet to make enough ethanol to replace fossil fuel. Besides, the amount of energy required by burning fossil to make the enthanol being produced cause more damage to the atmosphere than the amount of emisions saved by using  ethanol as fuel. Ergo, nothing is gained by using ethanol. I also agree that setting off nuclear bombs is a bad thing. 

2 hours ago, Technician said:

Also to add, the original engine built by Rudolf Diesel was designed to run on vegetable oil. 

 

Who would have thought a few dragsters could have caused such a fuss? 😬

You are right, the first internal combustion engines were designed to run on vegetable oil- until cheaper fossil fuels came along. It might be worth noting that even the best-made bio-diesel releases more nitrous oxide into the atmosphere than regular diesel does. Nitrous oxide is the substance in exhaust emissions that cause smog.

As matters now stand, there simply is no viable large-scale replacement for fossil fuels, so the only way to reduce emissions is to burn less fuel, and using smaller cars is a sure-fire way of doing that. No matter anybody's point of view- there is no getting past the fact that burning less fuel causes less emissions, unless of course the Martians among us have found a beter way?  

 

[Barry]

Farting cows, that's another good source of energy. There's a monestary not too far from my home place and the monks have built a plant to harness the power of methane. As far as I'm aware, they use it to generate all their own electricity and also heating. I also seen a couple of plants in Germany where biogas is produced from waste corn husks and stalks and this biogas is then used to produce electricity for small villages. 

[amitaj]

What so much fuss guys, don't you know that next big thing in automobile is electric cars.....?

That's why almost all car manufacturers investing heavily in that future and now so many electric cars are available on roads - of course except MENA and ASIA region as we get everything in end

For @treks do you know that Tesla and other electric cars have already reached 426 kms per charge, so where is the problem now and @Gaurav electric cars these days run 100 times crazy fast than petrol cars at it has instant power delivery but without the engine noise, lol. Be ready to dump your Mustang shortly. @Technician cowdung and other biogas is now thing of past and used in rural outskirts due to easy availability and not urban areas, I have barely seen a cow in UAE in last 5 years let alone the dung. I agree with your Solar and Wind energy use, that yes we should move more towards these alternatives as well as we have 360+ days of extra bright sunlight in UAE. @salmanahmed totally agree with you buddy that best way to educate people is with word of mouth and social these days as it connect with emotions faster than just sending emails and sms.

[Barry]

Electric cars aren't particularly environmentally friendly anyway when you consider this is the result of mining lithium to manufacture the batteries,

 

[treks]

@amitaj, there is a small problem with Tesla and other electric cars that can make 426 kms per charge. For instance, where will the electricity come from to recharge a billion Teslas? You may also want to rethink your position on cow dung- you may not have seen a cow in the past 5 years, but the fact is that there are now more cows in South America than people.

Lastly, you may want to check out another post by @Technician about what happens when lithium is mined to make electric car batteries with.  

[salmanahmed]

Ah! this is getting interesting now  

since we decide to walk down the "how we get stuff" road.

Let's look at what happens when we try to get oil ... 

That one is from BP.

this one is from a very respectable oil company that help build schools with the money they save by using poor equipment and low maintenance cost.

the great wall of Oil in ocean 

a dumb turtle that can't handle a little oil at sea.

dumb bird that can't afford a little shampoo 

An Oil company worker painting art on Earth.

trying to use oil to grow green farms ... what a sight for the eco-lovers 

a loving couple of seals giving each other an oil massage 

DEAD tired from an oil bath. i think it would have hurt less if we had fried them instead 

a beautiful sight of 4th of July fire-works at sea. 

Shell company provided black water to nigeria to use against fire. 

So in a war of mining against the damage to Earth. I think Oil wins first, second and third position.

First for Air pollution 

Second for Water / sea pollution 

Third for land pollution 

Have said all that, ...

i do agree with you to an extent, the transfer to electric car is not 100% flawless. there are challenges but we have to choose the less of the two evils. 

Plus, with new technology like see-through solar panels, we will soon be able to coat the roof, hood and trunk of a car with electricity generating solar film. This will allow the cars to run and charge smaller polymer batteries soon. but we are not there yet. Maybe in 5 years time we will have perfected the technology for more eco-friendly cars. 

Hope that answers a few questions and concerns. 

 

[Barry]

Oil also brings with it another set of social and economic problems aside from the environmental issues. Anyone remember the American invasion of Iraq? The real reason Saddam Hussein was removed from power was that certain people were scared that he had control of a very large supply of oil and could cut it off at any time. I dread to think what people will do to each other to gain control of the small amount of oil (money) left in a few years time. If we don't get organised and prepare for the future now, the future could look like a scene from a Mad Max movie. 

[Abdul Hanaan]

Well done @salmanahmed what a story you created. This forum is getting interesting day by day.