Worldwide, nearly every automotive vehicle operates on a fuel derived from petroleum. Petroleum is a limited resource. Possibilities for prolonging its supply include shifting to other transportation modes, better management of traffic, improving vehicle energy efficiency, and employing alternative energy sources. For the next twenty-five years, petroleum-based fuels are expected to continue their domination of automotive propulsion, but alternative energy sources are being investigated as a solution to another automotive issue - the environment. Alternative sources of propulsive energy having potential include natural gas, LPG, hydrogen, alcohol, biofuel, and electricity. Local environmental concerns include photochemical smog, increased atmospheric carbon monoxide concentration, and toxic emissions. A regional environmental concern is acid deposition. Globally, the potential for climatic warming is a threat. For an alternative energy resource to be effective in addressing these environmental issues, it must have an available supply, a means for distributing it to the vehicle, and a way to store it reasonably on board. Interactions among these diverse issues are discussed in this paper.
Samenvatting