Abstract
How the world would be today without automobiles would easily elude our understanding. Back in the days when there were no cars, motor-powered ships, and airplanes, people would probably walk for days to get from one point to another. It took various inventions by different people to have the automobiles we have today. One significant step was the invention of the internal combustion engine in the early 1860’s. The engine obviously needed fuel to run it, and that is how automotive fuel came into existence. With the discovery of oil and gas fields in various parts of the world, petrol soon became the primary automotive liquid fuel, and it has been in use since then. There were other types of fuel too such as steam and rechargeable batteries, but the availability of petrol and its performance in speed caused it to be favored over other types of fuels. The use of automotive fuel has had its pros and cons since the development of the internal combustion engine. Therefore, by referring to various scholarly journal written in the past about this topic, this paper intends to weigh the development of automotive fuel and how it has impacted the world since its introduction.
Key words: Internal combustion engine, emissions, steam, diesel, petrol
How the world would be today without automobiles would easily elude our understanding. Back in the days when there were no cars, motor-powered ships, and airplanes, people would probably walk for days to get from one point to another. It took various inventions by different people to have the automobiles we have today. One significant step was the invention of the internal combustion engine in the early 1860’s. The engine obviously needed fuel to run it, and that is how automotive fuel came into existence. With the discovery of oil and gas fields in various parts of the world, petrol soon became the primary automotive liquid fuel, and it has been in use since then. There were other types of fuel too such as steam and rechargeable batteries, but the availability of petrol and its performance in speed caused it to be favored over other types of fuels. The use of automotive fuel has had its pros and cons since the development of the internal combustion engine. Therefore, this paper intends to weigh the development of automotive fuel and how it has impacted the world since its introduction.
It is worth noting that, though automotive fuels were developed almost the same time. However, steam was easily abandoned before long. This could be attributed to its low performance regarding to speed. Engineers focused their attention on other fuels such as diesel and petrol possibly due to their excellent performance with the internal combustion engine and further continued to improve them. According to John Feather’s article on ‘Steam-powered knowledge’, steam engines, being external combustion engines, were built with large boilers which were very heavy. This meant that they could only run large automobiles such as trains and ships . Their weight and clumsiness meant that they could not be used to power small vehicles which were expected to move at a higher speed. Furthermore, open boilers allowed too much heat to escape, and therefore the temperatures could not get as high as expected. Only about 20% of the heat could be converted to run the engine resulting in very low speed. However, comparing the cost of coal and diesel fuel, steam fuel could probably be performing just like these other types of automotive fuels today had it be given enough attention and development time. Comparing coal and diesel; it would be cheaper to operate a steam-powered locomotive. Besides being very cost effective, steam engines are relatively environmental friendly as compared to internal combustion engines which are noisy and emit too much air polluting gasses. Steam engines are much quiet and do not produce harmful emissions.
The automobile industry has for decades tried to compare different automotive fuels in an attempt to prove which of them could the best. Diesel, for instance, is considered to be more efficient than petrol as far as big trucks and heavy commercial vehicles are concerned. This is because their engines have more rotation force which gives them more towing ability. Additionally, diesel engines accelerate faster than the petrol-powered engine from a total stop point. Diesel-powered automobiles have been despised in the past for being too much noisy and producing very dark, smelly soot. Lately, though, technology has improved them, and today they are less noisy and have less emissions. The combustion rate for diesel, though, is usually slower than that of petrol and therefore diesel-powered automobiles are relatively slower is speed. This is because gasoline is more refined than diesel. On the same note, diesel fuel is more hazardous to the environment than other automotive fuels. This, of course, is due to its nature of having too much hydrocarbon especially when the engine is not serviced regularly.
In our modern-day world, when almost everyone is speed-oriented and is trying to save time, petrol has been deemed the most efficient automotive fuel, especially for smaller personal vehicles. This fuel has been the most preferred since the invention of internal combustion engine. This, as mentioned above, is all because it is highly refined and therefore can burn at a very rate. Another advantage of petrol which is as a result of being well refined is that the carbon emissions are much less. This fuel has for years been a very useful tool for industrial revolution across the world. Over the years, due to the development of technology, its extraction from the oil fields has continued to become less costly than it used to. Due to its nature of being in liquid, transportation through pipelines makes it even more convenient.
However, one would be blind not to acknowledge the dark spot in the whole petroleum industry. A big percentage of the problems the world is facing today could either directly or indirectly be attributed to crude automotive fuel. The amount of carbon emissions from automobiles alone have immensely contributed to the destruction of environment causing terrible problems such as global warming. With an estimation of over 1.2 billion vehicles in the world today and still increasing, one wonders what will happen to the environment if an alternative source of automotive fuel is not found soon. Towns and cities all around the world today, whether in the first or third world countries, are becoming inhabitable due to harmful gas emissions. People have been forced to put on gas masks days and nights to avoid inhaling poisonous emissions from engines. In the less sensitized countries, thousands of people are dying of cancer due to air pollution.
In the quest for an extra liter of oil, it is not only the air that is polluted. Spillages find their way into the sea when the floods wash down along the coastal oil fields. The parties involved only care about the oil and completely disregard the environmental implications involved. This, consequently destroys the marine life. Field fires are experienced around areas where oil extraction is done due to reckless handling. According the reports was estimated that by 1902, 10 million barrels had been wasted through spillage since the initial strike of the oil field at Spindletop.
The world’s over-reliance on petroleum and its products does not at all mean that it is the only automotive fuel. There are, of course, other environmentally safe sources of fuel. If the world put as much energy as it did when the internal combustion engine was first invented, we would soon be on our way out of environmental pollution. Increased production of electric automobiles is certainly a step in the right direction. This would mean no carbon emissions clog urban areas like it is the case today. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) is another safe option. It is cheaper and could save almost half of what governments spend on petroleum products. It could greatly help reduce air pollution, and its spillage would not cause even a half of the damage caused by oil. Governments would cut on importation budget since CNG is locally and readily available. We also need to go back and pick from where we stopped as far as steam-powered engines are concerned. They could be developed to be able to run smaller automobiles and help abandon high-carbon fuel sources. Any option that would help the world reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses would be a better option.
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