Do you worry about rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration but hesitate to switch from a relatively cheap gas-powered car of essentially unlimited range to an expensive electric car of limited range hauling half a ton of batteries?
Well there is an environmentally friendly alternative to both gas-powered and electric cars. What's more, the alternative does not require the purchase of a new car.
Wth minimal modification, a gas engine will run on alcohol. For example, burning methanol synthesized from biomass is carbon neutral, the carbon emitted on combustion having been derived from the atmosphere by photosynthesis. Methanol produced from biomass costs something like US$336 per ton, or $0.47 per litre. Yesterday's retail gasoline price in Vancouver, British Columbia was $1.62 per litre. The difference between the cost of producing methanol and the current retail price of gasoline seems sufficient, therefore, to cover costs of production and distribution while leaving an adequate margin for taxation.
On the downside, by volume, methanol delivers only about half as much energy as gasoline, although on the plus side, it has a higher octane rating. A better option, therefore, may be to power your car with ethanol, which yields about 33% more energy per litre than methanol and like methanol is derived from biomass, specifically sugar cane.
The feasibility of using alcohol as motor fuel as a means to eliminate the impact of cars on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is evident from the fact that, in Brasil, ethanol is a state required constituent of motor fuel, with some cars in that country being run on pure ethanol.
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