Eco Friendly Technologies

The eco-friendly technology- Hybrid Cars

In the modern world of today, humans are about to face an acute energy shortage in the near
future. This dire situation has been triggered by the continuous over exploitation of coal and crude
oil. More over when fossil fuels are burnt, they release harmful pollutants like sulphur oxides,
nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, etc. These pollutants are polluting the Earth's
atmosphere and are proving to be great health hazards for all the kinds of life that thrive on
this planet.

Hence researchers and scientist have been trying to develop technologies that would help humans
reduce and avoid burning fossil fuels, while at the same time satisfy their energy demands. Two such
leading innovations have been done in the automobile industry. They are the arrival of hybrid
led cars and the introduction of biodiesel.

What are hybrid cars?

A vehicle designed to run on more than two or more distinct sources of energy is called a hybrid car.
Most hybrid cars are known to derive their power from a combination of a single or multiple electric
motor and a normal car engine or internal combustion engine. The hybrid car was developed as an
alternative to the fossil fuel guzzling cars of today. These hybrids are referred to as HEV or Hybrid
Electric Vehicles. Apart from their ability to keep the environment clean, these cars help reduce its
owners fuel bill by a huge amount. The mileage of these cars is just awesome. They can easily run
around for 20 to 30 miles on a gallon of fuel.

Henri Pieper is credited with the invention of the world’s first hybrid engine (petrol electric engine).
Hybrid vehicles are not a recent phenomenon. The most common example of a hybrid we
see regularly is the diesel locomotive, since they can derive the power required to run them either
from diesel or from electricity. This technology has been applied to cars fairly recently and
most manufacturers have excitedly announced plans to roll out hybrid model vehicles from their
factories.

The petrol-air hybrid engine was designed by a French company called MDI. This company
successfully ran car models fitted with this new hybrid engine design. The vehicles were wired to be
run directly by the hybrid engine, thus eliminating the need of air motors. The most energy efficient
part of this hybrid engine is its active chamber. In this chamber the energy produced by the engine
is almost doubled by heating the air via the fuel.

The status of hybrid vehicles in today's world

Numerous hybrid car models like the Honda Insight, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe have been
launched in the US and in the European markets. The public transportation system of some the
major cities of the world have now been partially converted to run on hybrid vehicles. The New York
Police department is known to use a fleet of the Toyota Prius Hybrid cars. Tata Motors has
undertaken a project to roll out hybrid cars in the Indian automobile market. They have completed
the first phase to the project that is the passing of the design phase. Now they have moved to
the phase 2 of the project where they are trying to complete the developments required by the air
engine to become a hybrid engine.
The technology of hybrid cars is here to stay and has a tremendous scope of dominating the
automobile industry in the recent future. With the ongoing energy crisis and increasing awareness
about the environment among the masses has led to more and more people converting their
cars to hybrid led cars.

Biodiesel and its applications

Biodiesel is basically a form of vegetable oil or it may even be a diesel fuel based on the fat of
animals. The molecular structure of this new fuel is simply a long-chained ester. When vegetable oil
or animal fat are allowed to react with alcohol, it produces these esters.

Biodiesel can be directly used to run cars or it may even be blended with conventional diesel and
then used. The amount of biodiesel in any blend is denoted by B followed by a number indicating the
quantity present. For example, completely pure biodiesel is denoted as B100. Simple diesel engines
can be very easily run on B20 blend of a biodiesel. The engine will not require any further
modifications.

Biodiesel's solvent properties are drastically different from conventional diesel and petrol. This fuel
has a tendency to corrode the hose pipe lines and the rubber gaskets of engines. So, a person has to
install proper filters to run their car on biodiesel. But this is biodiesel's only disadvantage. This fuel
has many properties like a high cetane rating and good properties of lubrication. This makes it more
efficient compared to conventional fuels, thus increasing the fuel economy of the vehicle.