I’d love an SUV, since I do all kinds of outdoorsey stuff that involves tons of gear and driving up logging roads in winter, or other ridiculous things. Going on half-week winter hikes in the White Mountains with one other guy in tow would fill my old Honda nearly to the bursting point with crap, and getting it to the trailhead sure could be a challenge. I did things in that car no rice-rocketeer should dare to dream of, much less actually attempt.
Well, my conscience won’t let me unless I really need one. And I don’t really need one.
Now, if a reasonably renewable source of energy is implemented well for the production of bio-diesel, you’re looking at a more carbon-neutral source of fuel. Couple that with hybrid technology, and one could potentially increase efficiency, while decreasing both CO2 and smog emissions dramatically, at least under some conditions. It’d be my dream scenerio for a new SUV (I’ve no illusions about fuel cells any time soon).
How likely, if at all, is my dream to be realised any time in the next ten years?
On the hybrid SUV side of things, Ford is already selling the Escape, a gasoline-electric hybrid SUV, so a diesel-electric hyrbrid SUV from some company can’t be too far off.
You’ll probably never see a diesel-electric hybrid, mainly because diesel engines cannot be started and stopped frequently. They suffer more tear and wear and they emit more pollutants when cold.
Diesels are fairly efficient a partial load, gasoline engines very poor. Hybrids achieve some of thier effiency by keeping the gasoline engine out of this load range. Also, hybrids need smaller engines, and maintaining effiency is becomes much more difficult the smaller you make a diesel.
From what I gather on biodiesel, it is in and of itself ecofriendly (at least burning it is; I’m not sure about processing it). I seem to recall a statement made on Modern Marvels that it is less toxic than table salt and obviously quite biodegradable. As such, I’m curious as to the need to make a hybrid biodiesel car/truck/SUV. The fuel is a renewable resource and burning it is clean…why not just use conventional diesel engines? IIRC, the first diesel engine burned “biodiesel”.
When I was trying to wade through the oil statistics last night, I vaguely recall reading that 60% of U.S. oil consumption is the transportation industry; moving goods from here to there. To me, that means vehicles that already use conventional diesel engines: locomotives and semi-trucks. I’m sure JP accounts for some transportation of goods, but very little. I wonder what would happen if the railroads and trucking companies switched over to biodiesel. I can’t recall if it requires expensive modification to the existing engine, but I don’t think it does.
I also wonder how world economics would change if the United States became the world’s leading producer of energy…in the form of corn. Seems like the middle east would become a moot point, though we’d probably end up with “Big Corn” in control of the purse strings of political campaigns.
Is there a future in it? My gut says yes. If I had a few grand to spare, I think I’d buy into biodiesel. Gasoline hybrids may be a stopgap, but still ultimately rely on fossil fuel. Biodiesel, to me, has the potential to really revolutionize energy. After all, if we take the basic concept of the diesel-electric locomotive and apply it on a larger scale, we’re now burning biodiesel to produce the electricity to run the plants to produce biodiesel. But that’s only my speculation.
Canola is apparently the highest yield crop for biodiesel…and canola oil is also known as rape seed oil, so we could end up with “Big Rape” in control!
Wouldn’t really know about the overall status of the industry, but this link is relevant. Apparently the biggest biodiesel plant is being made in Iowa Linkylink
Biodiesel has a lot of limitations, including the fact that production is a net loss of energy (you can’t produce biodiesel fuel using only biodiesel fuel for energy, for instance). It has a slightly lower energy density (5-8%) than petrochemical diesel, which means that engines using it will be slightly less fuel efficient. It also gels at about 0C (32F), making it unsuitable for year-round use (without additives) in most of North America.
On the other hand, biodiesel can be extracted as a by-product of some agra-businesses (Wikipedia cites Ocean Nutrition in Nova Scotia, Canada as a source of six million gallons a year out of their Omega-3 fatty acid processing), which makes it a lot more attractive. And, of course, as a renewable, portable fuel source that fits with current technology and infrastructure, it’s not a bad way to convert other forms of energy to transportation uses.
Now this is what I wonder about. Your first point is obvious, of course, and is one of the big reasons I’ve had my doubts about this whole biodiesel thing. Where are we getting the energy to make it? Will we just burn other fossil fuels and accomplish nothing?
However, if it really is a plentiful byproduct of some already-sustainable industries that otherwise is wasted, that makes it look much more viable as a consumer fuel that might actually reduce our dependance on petroleum and actually be of some net benefit environmentally. Of course, it also can’t be prohibitively expensive to produce.
