alternatives to petrol

If your sick of the growing cost of fossil fuels, and you would like an alternative fuel to run you car on, then there are a couple of options available alongside natural gas and electric.

Using ethanol is starting to gain ground, as an easy way to add to existing petrol mixtures. All the cars on the road today can handle around 10% of a mix of ethanol in with the the petrol without any engine modifications. Some states on america are actually activity encouraging this by law, so you may already have your car running on this, check with you local fill up station.

Lots of newer car models are also fitted with flexi fuel, which means that your car engine can handle a mix of ethanol, and gas. Sometime with as much as 15% ethanol. There are over 7 million cars on america roads today that have flexi fuel, so this is a good dent into the reliance on fossil fuels. The Type of fuel at the pump station is called E85, and if you are driving an FFV then you could be saving money right away.

There are conversion kits available for normal cars though, and they can be quite cheap around $450-$500 for most kits.

Using biodiesel is also a viable option. Biodiesel is a great renewable energy source, made from a wide variety of possibilities including corn and soybeans. If your already running a diesel vehicle you can even use a good cheaper alternative which is vegetable oil. This isn't the best to use for cold starts, and can also smell quite bad too. But if that doesn't bother you, you can start reusing your vegetable oil once you've finished cooking your fries for dinner.

Another great alternative fuel that is really starting to pick up publicity in the Uk is Methane powered cars. The council in Bristol runs a sewage plant, completely on the methane produced from the human waste is processes. It has now also released a Volkswagen beetle named the bio bug, that is powered by the methane gas as well. This could very well be the future, as it takes 70 houses to generate enough methane energy to run your car for a year.

Some countries offer a red diesel fuel alternative which has a lower fuel duty tax on it. This type of fuel although not technical an alternative to fossil fuels, is a cheaper alternative if you are a business or have work on private property.