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Lately I am seeing more and more ”Hybrids” speeding down the freeway at maximum speed swerving in and out of traffic, or racing from one traffic light to the other. It seems everybody is jumping on the “Hybrid Band-Wagon”, because they are “green”. Let’s examine that for a moment. How green are “hybrids” really?
A hybrid or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) is a vehicle which combines a conventional propulsion system with a rechargeable energy storage system (RESS) also known as batteries to achieve better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle. It includes a propulsion system generally an internal combustion engine (ICE) in addition to the electric motors, to be not hampered by range from a charging unit like a battery electric vehicle (BEV).
Modern mass-produced HEVs prolong the charge on their batteries by capturing kinetic energy via regenerative braking, and some HEVs can use the internal combustion engine (ICE) to generate electricity by spinning an electrical generator (often a motor-generator) to either recharge the battery or directly feed power to an electric motor that drives the vehicle. Many HEVs reduce idle emissions by shutting down the ICE at idle and restarting it when needed (start-stop system). An HEV’s engine is smaller than a non-hybrid petroleum fuel vehicle and may be run at various speeds, providing more efficiency.
So far so good! There is a considerable fuel saving especially in stop and go city driving compared to a regular gasoline engine vehicle due mainly to the ability of newer HEVs to capture some of the kinetic energy lost by conventional vehicles during braking.
Driving on the freeway however can change things quickly as you no longer use the electric motor to propel the vehicle but now rely solely on the gasoline engine to get you going. As a result you will get the same gas mileage as a conventional gasoline engine car with similar engine output and possibly less since you are carrying around the dead weight of the electric motors and batteries. Add to that erratic driving and the benefits of the HEV are completely lost. Case in point is a comparison done by the British car show Top Gear that recently took a Toyota Prius Hybrid with a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder engine producing 76 HP to the race-track and compared it to a BMW M3 with a 4.0 liter V8 engine and 414 HP! Obviously the Prius has no chance whatsoever when it comes to performance around the track. But how about fuel efficiency? Surely the Prius will have the upper hand! Driving ten laps around the race-track the Prius averaged a whopping 17.2 miles per gallon while the M3 going the exact same speed as the Prius averaged 19.4 miles per gallon!!! So you see the way you drive can be of greater importance then what you drive! Just because you drive a HEV does not mean that you are green.
Can you really be green in a HEV? The inherent problem with current production HEVs is that you are still relying on fossil fuels to power your ICE. The problem with burning fossil fuel such as gasoline is that you are releasing CO2 into the atmosphere that has been stored millions of years ago adding to the greenhouse gases today, which in turn is causing the global climate to change a.k.a. Global Warming!
In order to be truly green one has to completely stop adding greenhouse gases such as CO2 to the atmosphere. How can that be done? Very easily! In 1893 a German engineer by the name of Rudolf Diesel invented an engine that runs on peanut oil! This engine is commonly known as the Diesel engine and has been adapted early on to run on a cheap fossil oil byproduct derived from refinement of petroleum/gasoline fuel known as diesel. As a result any Diesel engine can be converted to run on vegetable oil or biodiesel which is made by transesterification of vegetable oil. So what’s the big deal about burning vegetable oil or biodiesel compared to regular gasoline? Simply put – it is a closed cycle! The toxins and greenhouse gases that are emitted by burning the vegetable oil/biodiesel are taken out of the atmosphere by the plants that are grown to produce the fuel and replaced by oxygen (O2)! Your carbon footprint is possibly zero (depending on what type of fuel the tractors, machinery and trucks use in the production of the vegetable oil/biodiesel). In addition a modern diesel engine is 30%+ more efficient with the same performance! So even if you run it on regular fossil diesel fuel you still get about the same or better mileage as a comparable HEV. In most parts of the world diesels are extremely popular due to its amazing efficiency. There are cars in Europe with diesel engines that get 95+ miles per gallon such as the Audi A2 which was first released in 1999!!! In the US most people including the people at the EPA still have a distain for diesel engines partially due to their higher particle and NOx emissions. Both are drastically reduced with the higher quality low sulfur content diesel fuel which has been available elsewhere for ages and finally was mandated by our government in 2006. In addition particle filters and catalytic converters in late model diesel vehicles from Europe actually qualify them to meet even the strictest standards for particle and NOx emissions. If you use vegetable oil or biodiesel the particle and NOx emissions are virtually eliminated even without any of the filters etc. Running a car like the A2 on biodiesel would not only get you phenomenal fuel mileage but also leave virtually no negative impact on the environment.
Of course manufacturing a new car takes a lot of energy. According to industry sources it takes 31,362 British Thermal Units (BTU) per pound of vehicle. So the bigger and heavier the car the more energy is required and therefore the bigger the impact/damage on the environment. HEVs however require approximately 23 – 30% more energy per pound to be built due to the extra batteries and electric motors than a comparable vehicle with an internal combustion engine in addition to being approx. 10% heavier than their non-hybrid relatives. Burning gasoline generates 113,500 BTUs (0.1135 million BTUs) of energy per gallon. It takes approximately the equivalent of 810 gallons of gasoline to make a Toyota Prius. Let’s say you’re considering trading your Accord that averages 26 mpg for a Prius that would save you 20 mpg you would have to drive approx. 16,200 miles before you ever brake even!
There are also considerable negative effects of the batteries used in HEVs. Granted today’s HEVs no longer use the highly toxic Nickel Cadmium batteries used in earlier HEVs, but rather Nickel Metal Hydrate batteries that are less toxic and are also recyclable. They still require a highly complex and energy demanding process to manufacture and nickel mining is one of the great polluters of our time, destroying thousands of acres of wilderness through strip mining and also contributing to acid rain and a host of other environmental disasters.
Let’s recap! How green are hybrids really? Driving a HEV can save fuel especially in city driving potentially lowering the impact on the environment in comparison to a conventional gasoline powered car. To be truly green the impact on the environment should ideally be zero! That means that there are no pollutants (toxic and non-toxic greenhouse gases) added to the environment while driving and in the making of the car. Since the consumer has little impact currently on the process in which cars are built and how much energy is consumed in the process let’s focus on the emissions while driving. Driving a HEV still requires fossil fuel to be burned which adds all those bad greenhouse gases to be added to our atmosphere, increasing global warming. Even if one would be able to achieve 200 mpg with a HEV one would still add to the global warming while driving.
What about Plug-In Hybrids? Their range at this point is very limited (less than 50 miles) and it takes a long time to recharge them. Once the battery is depleted they still require fossil gasoline to run their internal combustion engine. In addition the electricity that is used to charge the batteries is still largely produced through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil adding to global warming.
What about Electric cars? See above! A great way in the future once all the electricity is produced through renewable wind, solar, etc. and the battery technology allows for easy recharging and adequate range.
What about Hydrogen Powered Cars? In general it is a great concept. Hydrogen burns clean with no exhaust emissions other than water! There are a few drawbacks however. A) It takes electricity to make hydrogen. Once again the majority of the electricity produced in the world at this point in time is through the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas) or nuclear power, which has a bunch of problems that I don’t even want to get started on right now. B) Hydrogen is a highly explosive gas (think Hindenburgh!) which makes for extremely difficult and dangerous transport and storage.
What about Ethanol? Ethanol is a renewable fuel. Henry Ford actually developed the Model T to run on ethanol, calling it the fuel of the future! The largest national fuel ethanol industries exist in Brazil (gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 25% ethanol and anhydrous ethanol is also used as fuel in more than 90% of new cars sold in the country). The Brazilian production of ethanol is praised for the high carbon sequestration capabilities of the sugar cane plantations, thus making it a real option to combat climate change. Today, however, 100% pure ethanol is not approved as a motor vehicle fuel in the U.S. and only blends of ethanol with gasoline are available with E85 being the highest concentration with 85% ethanol. One inherent downside of ethanol is the considerably lower energy content compared to other fuels (approx 30% less than gasoline and 40% less than diesel) which obviously requires more fuel to achieve the same performance and mileage.
So why is everybody talking about hybrids as the way to a cleaner and greener future? In my humble opinion the answer is lobbying and marketing! For two decades the American carmakers and petroleum industry were lobbying to get special emission standards and even tax rebates for the ever so popular and fuel guzzling SUV so Detroit could sell lots of them at a much larger profit than regular cars. Now we are told that a hybrid Cadillac Escalade is a green vehicle! Turning a SUV into a hybrid and calling it a green vehicle is like putting wings on an elephant and calling it a bird! However if the same SUV is powered with a renewable fuel such as biodiesel you could have a true green vehicle since driving the car would be CO2 neutral. Once you tap into a renewable energy source fuel efficiency becomes less relevant since there is no negative impact on the environment. If you use solar power to power a vehicle it does not matter how much of it you use since there are no emissions. In the same way with bio-fuels that use solar energy to store carbon that is taken out of the atmosphere (CO2) and burned and then taken out of the atmosphere again, burned again and….
The conclusion to the matter is this: Don’t buy into the hype! If everybody would stop using oil (gasoline) because they were using bio-fuels or other renewable sources of energy to drive their cars, heat their homes and even generate electricity we could actually stop adding to the pollution and greenhouse gases and therefore stop global warming. Sounds great!? Maybe to you, but there are some that oppose this idea since they are making billions of dollars selling oil! One way for them to continue selling their “goods” is to give the illusion of eco-friendliness, i.e. Hybrid SUV, making it acceptable to the public’s conscience to continue on the path that we’ve been lead down for so long, prolonging the usage of fossil fuels rather than eliminating it all together.
God's Earth Ministry 