| |
| Here
are some of the exciting new eco-friendly technologies
that Flex Limo will deploy in the near future: |
 |
Flex
Fuel vehicles are able
to burn a variety of fuels, usually mixtures of ethanol
(the same kind of alcohol that's found in liquor) and
a small amount of gasoline. Ethanol burns far more cleanly
than gasoline, greatly reducing certain kinds of pollution.
And using ethanol produced in America reduces our dependence
on foreign oil. Currently, corn or other food-quality
grains are the primary source stocks for fermenting
ethanol, but scientists are hard at work developing
methods for producing this renewable fuel from agricultural
waste like corn husks.
|
| Henry
Ford designed his model A to run on Ethanol in the
1930's. Seems he was way ahead of his time.
Bio
Diesel
vehicles essentially run on vegetable oil. Diesel
engines are the norm in big rig trucks and larger
vehicles, and many passenger vehicles as well, so
there exists an enormous potential market for this
fuel. Diesel engines burn hotter than gasoline engines,
so they burn their fuel more efficiently and can get
very good milage per gallon of fuel as a result. Using
vegetable oil from American fields can offset a great
deal of the oil we import.
A
bio-oil seed field in Germany swallows a car. |
Hybrid
Electric vehicles use truly cutting edge
technology to imrpove gas milage. Hybrid vehicles
have two engines: one burns gasoline, the other runs
on electricity. Sophisticated computers make the most
of this arrangement, using the gas engine to charge
the batteries and using the electric engine to recover
energy when the vehicle is braking. When running on
the electric engine only, they are non-polluting and
almost completely silent.
In the future, we may see Fuel
Cell and other Hydrogen
vehicles take to the road, producing only a bit of
water vapor out of the tailpipe. Wouldn't that be
great? |
The
Honda ZFX experimental hydrogen fueled vehicle.
|
|
|
