Fuels

[pinksmartie]

What are alternatives to the fossil fuels we are using now? And what fuel(s) would you say is/ are the most economical?

[jake-the-peg]

With regards to electricity generation there are basically 2 alternatives to fossil fuels.

The first are renewables - solar-wind-wave etc.
The problem with these is that they are not controllable - you cannot whistle up a storm when the cup-final finishes and everybody wants a cup of tea. This means that they cannot be a total replacement without a massive over capacity

The other is nuclear with it's well known problems.

There's hydro-electric of course and geo-thermal but we can't all live in the mountains or by a weak spot in the Earth's crust.

As for what we're using now there are wind farms producing small amounts of electricity and a number of nuclear plants able to power large cities. Solar cells are used most to run small scale applications like electronic monitoring equipment on motorways and there are a number of tidal power plants but none in the UK yet.

Generally non-fossil fuels are expensive to build but cheaper to run. That goes for Nuclear too

The economics of renewable power are often hotly contested

Here's one set of figures:
The cost of power generation by this means [wind] is estimated to be 5.35p per kw kwhr onshore and 7.19p per kwhr offshore as compared to 3.45p per kwhr for coal-fired, 2.57p per kwhr for gas-fired and 2.26p per kwhr for nuclear. So the cost of electricity by wind

http://www.viewsofscotland.org/library/docs/RQ _Vospublication_15Jan05.pdf

However you can probably find plenty of figure to prove the reverse.

Even if renewables are not cost effective now, if more taxes are placed on carbon emissions they may quickly become cheaper quicker.

I know that's probably more than you need but it wouldn't be any fun if you just cut and pasted homework would it

[lightoftruth]

hydrogen....hydrogen has to be the fuel of the future...the technology allready exists to split the hydrogen and oxygen from water...although to make it truly effecient and economical further research is needed...will reasearchers get there grants? like hell they will...not whilst oil companies have such a stranglehold over governments.

[jake-the-peg]

Hydrogen is a good potential mobile fuel but you'll probably need electricity to create enough of it which brings you back to my original answer.

You also have one or two safety issues to address

[Mortartube]

Agree with lightof truth, Hydrogen is the Only non pollutiing fuel we have available to us. It could be split from sea water using offshore wind farms to generate the electricity and stored in undesea tanks and piped ashore when needed. It is very explosive but otherwise it is the only real answer, producing water when burnt, which could be split to form hydrogen again. The oxygen could be used for medical uses amongst other things.

[dozeydo]

Hydrogen has no more potential dangers than petrol, which is an extremely hazardous fuel, but if not recycled, the water vapour produced when it is burnt also contributes to the greenhouse effect...