Air pollution is a problem today. One of the major causes of air pollution is the exhaust of cars and trucks that are powered by fossil fuels, and until just a few years ago, every car and truck on every highway in every country in the world was powered by fossil fuel. The scope of the problem is almost incomprehensible, but a serious search for alternative fuel has begun in earnest now and there some really interesting ideas floating around out there.

E85 Ethanol FlexFuel: E85 is the alternative fuel that is being promoted as the best thing since sliced bread, but you need to take a closer look. E85 is a combination of 85% ethanol (derived from corn) and 15% gasoline. The problem is the fuel mileage. Mileage on the highway drops from about 31 miles per gallon using regular unleaded gasoline to a sad 23 miles per gallon using E85, for the same vehicle. This one isn’t
likely to be the answer to the emissions problem.

Grass as fuel: There have been a great many studies done and experiments conducted about producing large quantities of ethanol fuel for cars from grass. Ethanol is well known as having been produced from corn, but it has also been produced from switch grass. Fast-growing switch grass grows abundantly in the U.S., Canada, South America, and Africa, and the results of the studies and experiments are very positive.

Saltwater as fuel: This is a very interesting concept. There are a great many hurdles to overcome here, but it has been discovered that, under the right conditions, saltwater actually burns. This was proven by John Kanzius quite by accident. Kanzius is 63 years old and a former broadcast engineer. Like I said, there are a lot of problems between getting saltwater to burn and putting it in the fuel tanks of automobiles, but it is an idea that is being pursued.