Alternative Fuel - Gasoline

Alternative Fuel In Automobiles

Intro Gasoline Electricity Biodiesel Ethanol Methanol Natural Gas Propane P-Series ATV Conclusion Bibliography

Gasoline

As mentioned before gasoline is the formost used fuel in the United States and all over the world. The United States alone consumes about 130 billion gallons of gasoline a year. This is about one-fourth off all the oil produced in the world. Yet the United States only produces about one-tenth of it. America as a whole spends about $100 billion dollars a year to import oil. When Gasoline is used in automobile engines, it produces pollution as a by-product of its emissions. In the United States there are approximately 200 million cars, and these cars accout for about 80% of pollution in big cities, and about 50% of the total air pollution in the U.S.. Pollution from cars has gotten to be such a problem that about 1/4 of the U.S.'s population or 62 million people live in areas that violate the federal public health standards for clean air. So as you can see this is a big problem in the United States.
So what exactly is gasoline? Gasoline is what is know as an aliphatic hydrocarbon. This means that it consists of nothing buy hydrogen and carbon chains. A molecule of gasoline has between 7 and 11 carbons linked together in a chain. These chains range from C7H16 to C11H24. A common drawing of a gasoline molecule might look like these:

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                                                                                                      H H H H H H H

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H H H H H H H H

We get

gasoline from underground oil wells. It comes from crude oil (also known as petroleum) The oil next goes to an oil refinery where it goes through a process called distillation, which makes the oil usable as fuel. The United states imports much more than 50% of its oil. Since oil is such a vital means for power, it is not good that control over it is not in our hands.
There are a wide range of problems with gasoline, first is the fact that was just mentioned, the oil is not in our control. This means that we are spending a very large amount of money importing oil, and our supply could be cut off at any time. This is why all of the alternative fuels we will look at are at least 90% domestically produced. The other series of problems with gasoline are the environmental problems. Gasoline releases large quantities of toxic chemicals such as Carbon Monoxide into the air, some of these chemicals like benzene, are even carcinogenic. The Department of Transportation's statistics show that 2/3 of the carbon monoxide emissions in the U.S. come from gasoline engines. Gasoline usage also produces Nirtogen Oxides, which become the smog. With the widespread use of cars smog has begin to be a huge problem in our big, congested cities. Gasoline also produces hydrocarbons in its emissions. These hydrocarbons lead to what is known as ground ozone, unlike our ozone layer which protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays, this ground ozone causes respitory stress, damages plant and crop yields, and decreases photosynthesis in plants. Eventually these gases also lead to depletion of our protective ozone layer. Another very bad by-product of gasoline combustion is Carbon Dioxide. This is a greenhouse gas which is responsible for many problems in the atmosphere. A single gallon of gas may release about 5 to 6 lbs of carbon into the atmosphere. In the U.S. alone that is about 2 billion pounds of Carbon into the atmosphere every single day.
So as you can see, gasoline combustion is causing many problems in the U.S. and the rest of the industrialized world; and most of the gasoline being used is used for transportation purposes. To fix these problems many alternatives are being developed and we will look at these now.