Alternative fuels, known as non-conventional or advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels. Conventional fuels include: fossil fuels (petroleum (oil), coal, propane, and natural gas), as well as nuclear materials such as uranium and thorium, as well as artificial radioisotope fuels that are made in nuclear reactors, and store their energy.
Some well-known alternative fuels include biodiesel, bioalcohol (methanol, ethanol, butanol), chemically stored electricity (batteries and fuel cells), hydrogen, non-fossil methane, non-fossil natural gas, vegetable oil, and other biomass sources.
Traditional vehicle fuels petrol and diesel are, of course, produced from oil, whereas alternative fuels come from a variety of sources. Oil has a couple of key disadvantages, not least the fact that it is in limited supply and takes millions of years to be produced. There are also environmental considerations as fossil fuels release large amounts of harmful greenhouse gases. It is therefore important to look at alternative fuel today in order to better protect the environment and to replace the diminishing oil supplies.
Alternative fuel covers a number of options which are listed below and more details on which can be found on other pages of this site. Most of the options for alternative fuels are not derived from fossil fuels.
Biodiesel - Produced from the oil of crops such as rapeseed or from waste cooking oils. This results in a significant reduction in carbon emissions.
Bioethanol - Produced from starch plants such as corn, sugar plants or trees.
Biogas - A mixture of methane and carbon dioxide from landfill sites or produced using anaerobic digestion. This results in a 60% reduction in carbon emissions.
Fuel cell - A fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.
LPG - A blend of propane and butane produced from oil refining and methane gas fields. This has slightly higher carbon emissions than diesel but 80% lower nitrous oxide emissions.
Natural Gas - Mainly methane extracted from oil and gas fields. This has a 5% reduction in carbon emissions compared to diesel and 80% lower nitrous oxide emissions.
Pure Plant Oil - produced by crushing and filtering crops such as rapeseed. It is thought that carbon emissions from well to wheel will be slightly lower than those for diesel.
Appropriate technology is an ideological movement (and its manifestations) originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr. Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher in his influential work, Small is Beautiful. Though the nuances of appropriate technology vary between fields and applications, it is generally recognized as encompassing technological choice and application that is small-scale, labor-intensive, energy-efficient, environmentally sound, and locally controlled. Both Schumacher and many modern-day proponents of appropriate technology also emphasize the technology as people-centered.
Appropriate technology is most commonly discussed in its relationship to economic development and as an alternative to transfers of capital-intensive technology from industrialized nations to developing countries.
Appropriate technology has been used to address issues in a wide range of fields. Well-known examples of appropriate technology applications include: bike- and hand-powered water pumps (and other self-powered equipment), the universal nut sheller, self-contained solar-powered light bulbs and streetlights, and passive solar building designs. Today appropriate technology is often developed using open source principles, which have led to open-source appropriate technology (OSAT) and thus many of the plans of the technology can be freely found on the Internet.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES!
appropriate technology - brings technology to poor villages and can transform lives due to it being sustainable and no one needing to be dependent on lare companies
SOLAR ENERGY
WIND ENERGY
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