Introduction:
The battery-powered vehicle system plays a very important role in reducing carbon emissions to the environment. Even though there are many other ways also to achieve carbon-neutral mobility than adopting battery-powered electric vehicles.
Now, battery-powered transport systems are playing a major role in shifting toward carbon-neutral mobility. Even though researchers are continuously involved in developing other ways also to achieve the goal of no or minimum carbon emission drivelines.
Below are the 05 key alternative fuels other than battery electric vehicles:
1. Hydrogen Electric Vehicle (HEV):
Hydrogen is a ready-to-use option for both the combustion engine and the fuel cells, but the efficiency of hydrogen is considerably higher in fuel cells. Hydrogen electric vehicles are zero-emission drivelines, generally hybrid vehicles with a battery as used for buffer. HEVs are self-sufficient vehicles and are fast to refill easily. The European Union, under AFIR recommended expanding a huge network for sourcing hydrogen from renewable energy sources to scale up the infrastructure and overcome the tight bottlenecks.
2. e-fuels in Compare to battery-Powered Vehicles:
The e-fuels are the chemical combination of green hydrogen and CO2 capture. It is a zero-emission by CO2 compensation. Germany has opened the door to using e-fuel after the European Union ban in 2035.
Source: https://www.cng-mobility.
3. Bio Fuels:
Biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, and biogas are the prime sources of energy for propelling vehicles. The biofuels are derived from biomass, which includes organic materials like crops, agricultural residues, algae, or waste products.
The common biofuels are:
i). Ethanol:
Ethanol is the extracted form of crops like corn, sugarcane, wheat etc and is commonly blended with gasoline to create ethanol-gasoline blends such as E10 (10% ethanol, 90% gasoline) or E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline).
Figure 1 The Toyota Innova Hycross Flex Fuel MPV is designed to operate exclusively on Ethanol
ii). Biodiesel:
Biodiesel is the product from the residual of vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled cooking grease. It can be used in diesel engines either by mixing with petroleum diesel in blended form or directly in pure form.
iii) Biogas:
Biogas is the product of the anaerobic digestion of organic matter like agriculture waste, sewage, or landfill. The vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG) or the converted vehicles run on bio-methane use biogas as fuel.
4. Compressed Air Vehicles (CAV):
Compressed Air Vehicles (CAVs) are vehicles powered by compressed air stored in onboard tanks. The concept of using compressed air as a power source for vehicles has gained attention as a potential alternative to traditional internal combustion engines or electric vehicles.
The compressed air is stored in a tank mounted on the vehicle. This stored energy is then used to power the vehicle’s engine or motor.
5. Solar-Electric Vehicles (SEV):
Solar electric vehicles (SEVs) are those, which use energy from the direct Sun i.e. solar energy to produce electricity for propelling the vehicles. These vehicles usually include solar panels, which receive sunlight and transform it into electrical energy this electrical energy is then stored in batteries, and from the battery, this energy is used to power the electric motor of the vehicles for developing the propulsive power.
Figure 2 The Squad Solar City Car, as presented of the Fully Charged 2022 event in Amsterdam
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Squad_Solar_Car
Solar panels are made up of photovoltaic cells, which are used to convert sunlight into electricity through the photovoltaic effect.
Solar electric vehicles are powered by electric motors. The electricity generated from the solar panels is used to charge the vehicle’s batteries, which in turn power the electric motor. Some SEVs also can directly power the motor using solar energy during operation.
Conclusion:
To shift towards a more sustainable and integrated transportation system a sole carbon-neutral mobility system or a combination of new technologies and strategies is required to implement, even though battery electric vehicles play a substantial and diversified role in addressing the challenges of carbon emissions in the transport sectors.
Many innovations and technologies are there to cope with and solve issues like carbon emissions and sustainable mobility.
Carbon-neutral mobility is the demand and the future of the coming era for a more eco-friendly and sustainable environment.
Let us come together to achieve the goal for our future generation.
