I have to do a presentation in one of my classes that persuades against alternative fuels and their use. I've found some info on ethanol and its negative effects but I need 3 examples of fuels to present. Does anyone have any ideas. Essentially — The main criticism for many "alternative fuels" is that the process to create/access/process them requires a significant portion of the energy (and sometimes perhaps more energy) than is ultimately available when they are "burned" For example I have heard hydrogen identified not as a fuel, but as an energy transport system. This is because there is no place on the planet that you can drill for, mine, or harvest hydrogen. The hydrogen has to be created through a process that involves the use of other raw materials, and energy. Since no chemical or mechanical process is 100% efficient, there is always some energy lost along the way in whatever process is being used. This means that its takes more energy to create the hydrogen than you get out of it. So hydrogen is not an energy source. Now if we use solar power to create the hydrogen, its almost the same as charging a battery with electricity from the solar power, but instead we create hydrogen and transport it instead of a heavy battery. Sounds great right, but the challenge in so many of these types of systems is that we get less energy out than we put in. This doesn't help energy conservation at all. So whatever fuels you choose to examine, it is very likely that you can argue the process to access and create the fuel is too inefficient to actually be an improvement over established fuel sources. the criticisms you will get in response to this argument is that traditional energy sources will run out so we have to prepare for that; and that you can't measure the full impact of energy used in one type or another because of the long term effects to public health, biodiversity, agricultural production etc. It becomes very complicated and even the smartest people working on it are sometime not sure what the best path to take is. good luck.

I need a few examples of alternative energy and what it is. I think I found an answer. Alternative energy is a term that refers to methods of generating energy that are not the usual method (i. E. Fossil fuels). There are many forms of alternative energy, but, as energy is conserved, you have to ask yourself where the energy comes from (and the answer is always "the sun&quot. You should always be careful when you look at energy forms, because some of them just won't work – like the idea of putting water in your gas tank that another user has suggested (thermodynamics shows that these ideas won't work). The sun undergoes nuclear reactions which result in the release of photons (beams of light that have energy associated with them). Alternative energy forms just capture the energy from the sun in different ways (actually, fossil fuels also got their energy from the sun a long time ago). Here are a few alternative energy sources and how they relate to the sun: Bio-fuels: We can grow plants (such as algae, corn, sugar cane) which collect the photons from the sun and use the energy in the photons to create sugars. We can harvest those sugars and and turn them into liquid fuels such as ethanol. Solar Energy: This technology directly harnesses the energy of the sun by absorbing photons through photovoltaic solar cells and which create an electrical current when they absorb a photon. Additionally, you can use the energy of the sun to thermally heat an object, which is referred to as solar-thermal energy. Wind Energy: When the photons from the sun hit the air in the atmosphere, that energy can cause the generation of wind. We can harvest the wind energy by using turbines which spin when the wind hits them. The spinning motion is used to turn a generator which produces electricity. Hydro-electric: When the sun hits water, it can cause the water to turn into a gas and later that gas can result in rain. If the rain occurs at a high enough elevation and gets held behind a dam, the water now possesses a high potential energy due to the energy from the sun. That energy can be turned into electrical energy by converting the potential energy of the water into kinetic energy which is then used to turn a turbine in a hydroelectric dam.

. After speaking to others on the web, I found the answer. Good Project: There have been different attempts all need to be developed yet. The attempts include: 1. Solar energy through silicon cells: This is of more importance in hot regions with maximum sun shine. 2. Ethanol by way of combustion: Still an economical method is to be discovered for extracting ethanol from sugarcane. 3. Hydrogen by combustion: Hydrogen is to be obtained by decomposition of water. 4. Nuclear energy at small scale: So far techniques on domestic production have not been successful. 5. Bio-Gas: This is obtaining igniting gas by oxidation (fermentation) of organic fuels. The idea is basically obtained from China.