The only types of "futuristic" fuels and hybrid technologies i know are below:

- Petrol + Electric
- Diesel + Electric
- Electric
- Hydrogen
- Hydrogen Fuel cell

Are there any more than these?

Also, Which of these new fuel types / hybrids, do you prefer and why?

Would you drive a hybrid / fuel cell powered car?

*pity post*

There's also methane.
Let's not forget biodesiel and ethanol.

I like hydrogen fuel cells. Super efficient and H2 can be made any number of ways. Transportable too.

Of course, a light, powerful, cheap, fast charging battery would be preferable. Good luck with that one.

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Hydrogen fuel cells are the future. The only proplem with it is storage.

It is incredible the amount of electricity you can generate with these things.

How do you make the hydrogen in the first place?

In industrial quantities, electrolysis. Run high voltage current through water (with a small quantity of hydrochloric or nitric acid to increase conductivity, the acid is not consumed in the reaction) and hydrogen bubbles out of the cathode, and oxygen bubbles out of the anode. I could go into the why, but not everyone is a chem freak like me.

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Thats not my point, where do you get the electricity from? Surely being a 'chem freak' you know the electrolysis of water takes more energy than you get from using the hydrogen (say in a fuel cell).

Hydrogen is not a fuel source, it's just a carrier of energy similiar to a battery. Hence you have to still find away of producing more than the total amount of energy you need from hydrogen.

And you say Hydrogen is easily tranportable? How? Existing NG infrastructure can't transport it, it's extremly dangerous under high pressures, it's hard to get enough to power a car for a reasonable time in a car, it's very hard to liquidise, it would be also require a total revamp of filling station infrastructure, it causes steel to become embrittled etc...

And just found this picture demonstrating how efficienct Hydrogen is. It also states that normal vehicles with IC engines are about 80% efficient

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/Battery_EV_vs._Hydrogen_EV.png

80%? You must be on crack to beleive that.

This is a pretty technical paper regarding fuels and engine types, and how they effect efficnecy. According to this, the most efficent internal combustion engines in existance (they are not auto engines) get just over 50%.
http://ecen.com/content/eee7/motoref.htm

Here's an easier to read source for the much quoted 15%.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/atv.shtml


Yes, hydrogen is an energy transportation system. It is a highly efficient energy transportation system. If you were to take the same gasoline that you use in your engine, and use it in a maximum efficiency generator, which then produced hydrogen for a fuel cell, you'd get much more movement for your gallon.

Then there is the benefit of being able to make hydrogen from whatever local source of electricity is most abundant, available, and/or cheapest. This could be oil, solar, coal, nuclear, etc...

And let's not forget about the energy economy of transporting the energy. It would be so much easier to run power lines to fuel stations than to keep having to truck petrochemicals all over the damn place.

Yes, flammability of the hydrogen is an issue, but gas has been known to burn too. Don't go worrying too much about it being explosive, it has to be mixed with a fair amount of oxygen first before it will explode. Otherwise it just burns. Watch the Hindenburg crash if you don't believe me.

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You don't have to think I'm right, as long as you think.

80% in terms of total energy extracted that can be used. Eg if you get 100litres of petrol out of the ground (i know you don't but just as an example) then in the process of getting it, refining it, and transporting it you will use 20 litres of that petrol.

Definition of an explosion: The sudden release or creation of pressure and generation of high temperature as a result of a rapid change in chemical state

You have to store Hydrogen under high pressure, even with out it actually combusting if the tank ruptures then you have effectively a bomb.

The question is also up as to whether electrical grids could handle having (say in the US) 10mbd powered through them you would need the additional capacity of 700 GW of electricty, and thats alot.

There is also the work being done in Europe on pneumatic vehicle for inner city use, compressed air is a technology well within our reach and a lot of work is being done on efficient "motors" to run off it.

The short term future is in biologicaly sourced equivelants to fossil derived hydrocarbons (eg ethanol and biodiesel). Personally I prefer Biodiesel as a fuel source, and this coupled with either an electric or pneumatic hybrid system could result in a very efficient vehicle.

I work at a mine site, and all our power generation, heavy and light vehicles run off of biodiesel (100% not blends)

Sean