End of Internal Combustion Engines?

Internal combustion engine technology is fairly new and many people already want it abandoned in favor of electric motors, bicycles or even walking (gasp). Since most internal combustion engines are powered by gasoline and diesel, which are not going to last for much longer, we may want to be ready with an alternative. The electric motor would stand as the likely replacement, as there is no other sufficiently advanced technology that would work as well in all the applications that now use internal combustion engines. As it stands now, electric motors and internal combustion engines (ICEs) are pretty much interchangeable, barring certain situations that absolutely require electric motors. So it seems that we'd be okay without ICE technology.

Abandoning ICE power plants would also require a reworking of our economic system in major ways. The ICE has worked its way into many aspects of our lives and millions upon millions of people are employed in fields that depend upon internal combustion and related products. Surely some of the slack would be taken up by the proportionally increased demand for electric motors, but most electric motors are far simpler than their explosion powered counterparts. Most electric motors require no fluids and can be built very quickly, which means less man-hours needed for production.

Though it's nice to size up the competition, it's not quite time to build a coffin for old smoke n' puff just yet; there are other fuels than those based on petroleum that are renewable. Ethanol (the same stuff in your liquor cabinet) has been used in racing for years and new methods of producing it are being sought to enhance the appeal of it. Imagine what could happen to the price of consumable alcohol if we keep allocating more and more of the existing production quantities to transportation. Alcoholics everywhere would throw their bottles in protest. Just hold on to your bottle though, there's also methane and hydrogen that we can burn in our engines.

Methane, a gas produced from decomposing plant and animal matter, is being produced right now, by me and you. The problem posed to engineers would be that of how we would capture our flatulence (or farts- for those who like small words) and fill our cars and trucks with it. Waste management companies are already putting to work the methane produced from the heaps of trash in landfills as a fuel in their trash trucks. Natural gas is also currently being used as a transportation fuel and approximately 87% percent of natural gas is methane.

Hydrogen is not likely to take as quickly as methane or ethanol- it's likely to be our last resort fuel. Though hydrogen is already being used to power internal combustion engines, it's more novelty and proof of concept than anything else. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and it has a wife flammability range, which means that it will burn pretty easily. The reason I said that hydrogen is more novelty and concept at this time is owed to the cost of getting hydrogen to break its bond with other molecules. Hydrogen just doesn't like being alone, so it tries to find other elements to bond to, like oxygen to make water. The cool thing about hydrogen is that we can use it both as a combustion fuel and as a part of an electrochemical reaction to create electricity for electric cars.

Due to the great number of people who've already been placing their trust in ICE technology for over a century, it's become such a part of our comfort zones that we'd be hard pressed to give it up. People all over the world cheer that sound of grumbling V8 engines on race day and gladly excuse the noxious gasses produced from their tail pipes. Even though the engines are far more complex, unreliable and more expensive than electric motors, the majority of people seem to like them. The only way it seems as though the internal combustion engine will meet its end is through legislation, the start of which is already happening in some places throughout the world, such as in California and Japan.

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