Alternative Fuel and Employment

Alternative Fuel and Employment

Subject: ECONOMY

Context: Toyota partners with four Japan automakers to explore alternative green fuels for internal combustion engine cars including hydrogen and synthetic fuels derived from biomass.

Concept:

What are Alternative Fuels?

• Alternative fuels include gaseous fuels such as hydrogen, natural gas, and propane; alcohols such as ethanol, methanol, and butanol; vegetable and waste-derived oils; and electricity.
• These fuels may be used in a dedicated system that burns a single fuel, or in a mixed system with other fuels including traditional gasoline or diesel, such as in hybrid-electric or flexible fuel vehicles.
• Converting internal combustion engines to green fuels such as hydrogen is technologically difficult, but it would let the companies to support the existing supply chains employing hundreds of thousands of workers who may otherwise drop their jobs as they switch to building Electric Vehicles (EV’s).
• Some vehicles and engines are designed for alternative fuels by the manufacturer. Others are converted to run on an alternative fuel by modifying the engine controls and fueling system from the original configuration.