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Godfrey seminar presents alternatives
to petroleum-based fuels
Fossil fuels provide more than 85 percent of all the energy consumed in the United States, including virtually all of our
transportation fuels. The country is among the top three oil-producing countries on earth, but U.S. consumption continues to outpace domestic production.
By DANETTE M. WATT
For The Telegraph
GODFREY - What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and found out there would not be another drop of oil available"? What if whatever gasoline was in your car's tank would be all you had left"?
That was the scenario Allen Davenport presented to a small but attentive group gathered recently in the Community Center at St. Ambrose Church in Godfrey. They were there to hear Davenport and John Wilson present
"An Introduction to Alternative Fuels and Advanced Technology Vehicles."
La Vista Ecological Learning Center in Godfrey sponsored the lecture given by Davenport, the assistant chairman of the Automotive Department at Ranken Technical College in St. Louis. Wilson is the department's
chairman, and both men are members of the National Alternative Fuels Training Consortium headquartered at the University of West Virginia.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, fossil fuels provide more than 85 percent of all the energy consumed in the United States, including virtually all of our transportation fuels. Although the country is one
of the top three oil-producing countries in the world, U.S. consumption continues to outpace domestic production.
The demand for oil worldwide also continues to increase. China's economy is growing rapidly, as is its need for oil. Meanwhile, twothirds of the world's proven oil reserves lie beneath the sands of the Middle East,
an area with increasing political unrest.
For a number of reasons, Americans have seen major price increases at the gas pump since 2001.
But "oil doesn't follow the law of supply and demand," Davenport said. "The demand for oil hasn't gone down, even though the price has gone up."
He said the nation's need for energy isn't going to go away, but there are ways to lessen the country's dependence on petroleum products.
"There is a lot of technology out there, and. they all have their place, but ethanol, biodiesel and hybrid are the top three," Davenport said.
Other options include cars fueled by hydrogen, methanol, natural gas, propane, fuel cells and synthetic fuels, as well as battery-powered electric vehicles.
"Hybrid cars are the wave of the future," Davenport told the group.
Hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, use an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell in conjunction with an electric motor. When the ICE is warmed up,
it automatically shuts off, arid the electric motor kicks in. The battery is recharged internally by the engine or when the driver brakes.
Davenport said the only disadvantage he could see with hybrids is the cost of the battery - about $4,000.
"Toyota won't claim this officially, but the guys inside (the mechanics shop) say it can last about 200,000 miles before gas mileage starts to drop off," Davenport said.
Biodiesel is made from oil derived from plants such as soybeans, sunflowers, canola and peanuts or animal fats. Conventional diesel vehicles can run on anything from 2 percent to 100 percent biodiesel.
Davenport circulated a jar of amber-colored liquid chicken-frying oil that had been converted to fuel through a process called transestification. The
chemical process filters oils and fats to remove water and contaminants, then the pretreated oils and fats are mixed with an alcohol (usually methanol,
sometimes ethanol) and a catalyst (usually sodium or potassium hydroxide).
Ethanol is an alcohol fuel made from crops, most generally from corn or sugar cane. It can be used alone or blended with gasoline. Conventional
ICEs can run on 10 percent ethanol, while flexible-fuel vehicles can run on higher concentrations, such as 85 percent ethanol.
Ethanol has been getting a lot of attention in Illinois, even more so now because of a bill before the state House. In part, the bill would require all
motor fuels in Illinois to contain 10 percent ethanol by July 2008.
Davenport believes ethanol is a good choice for Illinois because of its abundance of corn.
"We've raised it, processed it, turned it into fuel and drove down the road with it," he said, referring to his experiences with ethanol.
"It's a fallacy that it's too expensive to produce. Those who are saying that are factoring the cost of the farmer's time, depreciation of his machinery. If
you start with a bushel of corn at $2 a bushel (and go from there), it isn't too expensive," he said.
Davenport also demonstrated how hydrogen fuel is made, separating the hydrogen and oxygen from a cylinder of water and using it to fuel a miniature motor.
dwatt33@hotmail.com
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