There have been some questions floating around as to why we don’t have diesel hybrids and why not, vegetable oil or even better, natural gas or while we wait for the promise of electric vehicles, EV?
Alternative Natural Gas Hybrids? Why not? Considering natural gas is 80% hydrogen and burns cleaner than any other “fossil fuel”, it would seem like a great contender to lower emissions vehicles and why not, hybrids and PHEVs. But how come we haven’t seen any yet? Why are hybrids and plug-in hybrid, PHEV only gas fed?.
It’s all about infrastructure! And there is the crux of the problem with any other fuels than gas or electricity, there is close to no infrastructure for its delivery. Considering conversions of diesel engine to natural oil is only a step above home made and requires filtering the oil, it makes sense to not have it so wide spread. Also, considering no gas stations sell you cooking oil as gas and we can see the mtivation to offer such a vehicle makes no financial sense.
What about natural gas? There is enough of it to go around for everyone and according to some estimates will last between 60 to 200 years. So why do we insist on petroleum that costs as much as it does and derivatives when there is an abundance of compressed natural gas? Best yet, it is all beneath our feet which would solve energy needs for decades? If we consider it is much more eco-friendly than almost any other “fossil-fuel” energy source, why are we seeing any natural gas hybrids and PHEVs?
We believe the answer to that question stems from the fact that there are both no wide spread infrastructure when it comes to delivering natural gas as well as it is not well understood by the general public. Too bad, it could prove to be a good solution for every parties involved.