Future Fuel

Fuel prices are going up like there is no tomorrow, and those science lessons from class six don’t seem too far off the mark now do they? Hundred years it said right? Make that eighty, will someone?

Everybody wants to replace the precious liquid with something a little ‘less precious’. This search for an alternative source of energy is driving everybody from Bush to Bittoo, crazy. Okay, everybody but Leno.

The ‘new’ fuel has to be cheap, easy to manufacture and clean too. So, what are the options? How about corn or sugarcane for ethanol? Naahhh…if the fuel prices don’t kill you, the hunger will. So that is a big no. Bio-diesel? Growing Jatropa has it’s side effects in farmers switching from food crops to cash crop and again that shortage of food thing ‘crops’ up its head. Similar is the story for bio-diesel from edible oil. No, nuclear energy in your boot is not an option. We’re still a few years away from the Jetsons.

So what is the right way to go? Electricity seems right. Yes, the electric motor. Remember the one that the IC engine killed at the beginning of the last century. Electric two wheelers are already selling like hot cakes in the country and though the Reva might not sell in huge numbers, the positives out weigh the negatives. Now one might argue that plugging your car into the socket will the send the emissions to the power plant. But consider the fact that hydel and nuclear power are cleaner than thermal power.

Also, producing electricity must be cheaper than making bio diesel (I’m just guessing here. Heck, we’ve been producing electricity for a while now). Battery tech is only going to improve from here and expect weight to come down while the charging interval and capacity to improve.

Another thing that just might work is the fuel cell. NASA has been using these for past few decades in their space program. The technology is proven but still not cheap enough. And Honda has just manufactured a batch of FCXs. The fuel cell can be used to charge the batteries of your vehicle either at a charging station or while in motion.

So there you have it. In the years to come, the most likely question a buyer is going to ask the dealership is not Average Kya Hai? but Range kya hai?.