The Most Promising Alternative Fuels
It is no secret that we are running out of fossil fuels. As a result there is quite a bit of effort going into finding alternative fuel sources. There are quite a few options available but right now all of them have issues that have prevented them from replacing fossil fuels. Nevertheless some of them are quite promising.
The most promising alternative fuel is hydroelectricity. The reason for this is that it is already in wide spread use and it is a completely renewable energy source. There are of course some issues with it, the biggest being that building a facility is very expensive and there will be opposition to it. However as an alternative source of energy it is by far the most realistic and environmentally friendly option that we currently have available.
The next option for an alternative fuel source is nuclear power. Again this is one that is widely used and it does offer the advantage of producing no green house gases. There is of course a major downside to nuclear power and that is fear of it makes it almost impossible to get approval to build nuclear reactors. Although nuclear accidents are very rare when they do happen they get a lot of attention. As a result one of the most promising energy sources that we have is generally not available.
The next most likely alternative fuel source as hydrogen. There are several ways that it can be used but a fuel cell is probably the best option. This would combine hydrogen and oxygen to get water which would also produce electricity at the same time. The problems to be overcome here are that storing and handling hydrogen can be a problem as it is very flammable. The other problem is that our largest current source of hydrogen is as a byproduct from the production of fossil fuels, although there are other ways to get it.
Biofuels have gotten a lot of attention as an alternative fuel source mainly because they have been fairly widely used. While they are easy to develop and use they come with a major downside. Producing biofuels requires that farmland stop producing food and start producing plants for fuel sources. Given that feeding the world's population is already a problem this is probably not the best plan and will likely doom biofuels.
Natural gas is another alternative fuel that is getting a lot of attention. The benefit here is that it is easy to use and it can generally be used without having to spend a lot of money retrofitting the machinery to use it. It is also cleaner than oil or coal as a fuel source. The downside here is that it is fossil fuel so we will eventually run out of it as well. Certainly it will extend the date before we run out of fossil fuels but it is only a temporary solution.