Introduction: Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the automotive industry was driven by a desire to make the most powerful vehicle possible. Bigger engines meant more power and bigger price tags. Then in the early 1970's (view video clip) fuel shortages and pollution problems scared everyone so much that a great deal of attention was given to better gas mileage and lowering pollution in cities. In fact, Congress passed a series of laws pointed at reducing pollution from many sources including automobiles. Also, additional laws were focused on raising the fuel mileage over the next thirty years.
Now in the 21st century a great deal of research time and money is being spent to reduce our dependence on OPEC nations for our supply of vehicle fuel. Several types of englines are being investigated for possible use in vehicles. More efficient gasoline and diesel driven internal combustion engines are just the types of engines being investigated. The use of ethanol and methanol mixed with gasoline and diesel fuel is being used everywhere. Totally electric vehicles are now available om certain limited areas. Hybrid vehicles using various combinations of internal combustion engines and electric motors are becoming more and more common.New research is being conducted to determine if the use of fuel cells will work in cars. These engines, in fact, can use water as their primary fuel. The use of natural gas in car engines has been around for over fifty years, but it is also getting studied for use in engines again.

Your Task: As a person who will need to understand as much as possible about automobile power systems, you are going to investigate information that will help you and your classmates be better prepared to purchase a vehicle in the future. We will be dividing the class into several teams. Each team will be investigating on aspect of automobile fuel problems.

Here the President speak Alternative Fuel Sources .

Topics for investigation:

1. How the gasoline engine works - 4 stroke and 2 -stroke engines.

2. How the diesel engine works.

3. How ethanol and methanol and biodiesel are produced.

4. Issues related to using alcohol as a fuel for cars and trucks.

5. How totally electric cars operate.

6. Types of hybrid systems and how they work.

7. How fuel cells work and can they serve as a fuel system for cars?

8. Natural gas as an automotive fuel.

9. Other sources of fuel.

10. What does research show us about modern transmission technology?

Possible Presentation Ideas:
Your team will be responsible to make a presentation to the rest of the class that will be 15 - 20 minutes long. You must include several methods of investigation such as hardcopy including books and magazines from the library, internet sources and video materials. Your presentation should include "Power Point" like presentation, an information handout, and a visual display item (such as videso, pictures, or diagrams) as a poster or oan on screen display.


Timeline

500 B.C. - The Chinese discovered the potential of natural gas.

 

1661 - Pure methanol is first isolated by the scientist Robert Boyle.

 

1785 - Britain starts to commercially use natural gas to light lamps, streetlights,

and lights inside houses.

 

1800's - Transesterification was used to make biodiesel.

 

1831 - Michael Faraday created a machine that derived electricity from rotary motion.

 

1839 - First fuel cell was developed by Sir William Robert Grove.

 

1859 - Belgian-born French inventor Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir built the first successful internal-combustion engine.

 

1894 - Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel powered internal combustion engine.

 

1899 - Ferdinand Porsche develops a hybrid gasoline-electric prototype car.

 

Late 1800's - Production of electricity powered vehicles.

 

1990 - Clean Air Act of 1990 required government vehicles to use cleaner fuels

 

1992 - Energy Policy Act of 1992 created more opportunities for alternative fuel research

 

1903 - Henry Ford discovered that ethanol could be used to power his Model T.

 

1970 - Federal Clean Car Incentive Program--first hybrid prototype developed (Buick Skylark). 

 

1997 - Mass production of Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) that can run on E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), pure gasoline, or a mixture of the two.

 

1997 - First hybrid developed for production was Toyota Prius

 

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