The auto industry, its critics and the public at large continue to ask what, if anything, will ever replace the internal combustion engine? And when will it do so? The internal combustion engine, first used in an automobile by Gottlieb Daimler in 1885, is not going away soon. But even as the industry works with remarkable success to make the internal combustion engine cleaner and more efficient, new technological applications loom in its future.

During a press conference at this year's North American International Auto Show, GM Chairman Jack Smith said, "No car company will be able to thrive in the 21st century solely with the internal combustion engine." The auto show, held in Detroit each January, provides an excellent forum for manufacturers to exhibit vehicles that reach into the future for their fuel and power sources.

Electric Cars
The most common alternative to the car as we know it is the electric vehicle. This is not a new option: electric vehicles have been built and sold since the first decades of this century. General Motors brought its EV1 to market more than a year ago, and the automotive press was impressed with the car's performance. There are drawbacks to the pure electric car, however, and EV1 leasing figures have reflected this. The major problem is that battery technology has simply not yet reached the point where an electric vehicle can offer consumers the cruising range and ease of recharging that they expect. This may come, but only if battery technology takes a forward leap. Lead-acid batteries, which are currently the most popular choice, will probably be replaced by nickel-metal-hydride batteries, which are used in laptop personal computers and cellular phones. Further in the future, the lithium-ion battery may provide the solution.

The first vehicle to use power from nickel-metal-hydride batteries was the Honda EV-Plus, and like the EV1 it was designed from the start as an electric vehicle, whereas most electric vehicles are conversions of existing platforms. The EV-Plus can be leased in California. The electric version of Toyota's RAV4 also uses this type of battery, and it will soon appear in GM's EV1 and Chevy S10 electric pickup. Nissan is testing its Altra EV, powered by lithium-ion batteries, in California, and a company spokesperson says that the car may be available to the public in two years.

Also waiting in our future are ultra-capacitors. These systems store electrical energy much like batteries but can provide intermittent surges of high power. Keep in mind, as Keith Crain wrote in Automotive News, that practical electric vehicles have been "five years away" as far back as most of us can remember.

Fuel Cells
Another future energy source that is gaining credibility is the fuel cell, and if fuel-cell research and development continues at its present rate, it could emerge as a leading contender. A fuel cell produces energy through electricity that results from the chemical reaction caused by combining hydrogen and oxygen. The only by-product of the fuel cell is water, which is a cheering fact. Most major automakers are working on a fuel-cell car, some with the cell being the sole power source and others using it as one of the two power sources in a hybrid car.

The device has proved effective in laboratory situations for more than three decades, and fuel cells have been used to produce power in NASA's space programs. Virtually every major manufacturer has a fuel-cell vehicle in the works, but none is likely to reach the market before 2004. Daimler-Benz, soon to become DaimlerChrysler, introduced its first fuel cell four years ago, and is joining forces with Ford and Ballard Power Systems of Canada to produce as many as 100,000 fuel-cell-powered cars annually, beginning in 2004. General Motors also has a fuel-cell vehicle on the computer screen, and Toyota has a fuel-cell development program under way. Chrysler, noting the absence of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure, is examining the use of gasoline to produce the hydrogen for its fuel cell, a process that would occur onboard the vehicle.

Alternative Fuels
In a far less futuristic vein, and without massive fanfare, the auto industry continues to make progress in the area of alternative fuels. The major candidates for replacing gasoline include ethanol, methanol, LP (liquefied petroleum) gas and compressed natural gas. Ethanol and methanol are alcohol-based fuels. Ethanol is produced from grain, most often corn. Methanol is an odorless, clear liquid made from natural gas. Natural gas itself is taken from abundant underground deposits and consists principally of methane. LP gas, a dry, gaseous fuel, is also abundant. The good news about these products is that they burn cleaner than gasoline. The bad news is that they are less dense and require larger tanks. Furthermore, cars lack the distribution systems needed for refueling. LP gas and compressed natural gas require heavy storage tanks that add weight to a vehicle.

Most manufacturers already have alternative-fuel vehicles on the road, and some of them are dual-fuel, meaning that they can switch from one fuel to another — gasoline to ethanol, for example. Flexible-fuel vehicles use a mixture of gasoline and alcohol. Many of the alternative-fuel vehicles on the market are powered by compressed natural gas, which was one of the earliest alternative fuels to be commonly used.

In addition to the factors already mentioned, alternative-fuel vehicles are hampered by the lack of a national infrastructure. If alternative fuels were suddenly available in every service station, increased usage would likely result — as would increased research and development of alternative fuels. Despite the lack of an infrastructure, manufacturers are pressing on. Chrysler became the first major automaker to introduce certified low-, ultra-low — and zero-emission vehicles, and 40% of its minivans have the flexibility to run on unleaded gasoline, E-85 (a compound of 85% gasoline and 15% ethanol blend) or any combination of the two.

"Natural gas will be the next major fuel, and the internal combustion engine will continue to be the dominant technology," says Dr. Steve Cousins of Cranfield University's International Ecotechnology Research Centre.

Hybrid Vehicles
"Hybrid cars," vehicles that can run on two sources of power, are rapidly nearing the level of development that will allow them to be marketed as serious vehicles. The only production hybrid on sale thus far is the Toyota Prius, a compact sedan sold in Japan for $17,000, far less than its manufacturing costs.

Most hybrid concept vehicles that manufacturers have produced use an internal combustion engine and an electric motor. In a "series" hybrid, the gasoline (or diesel) engine generates electricity, which powers the wheels. This system is similar to that used in "diesel" locomotives — which are really diesel-electrics. In a "parallel" hybrid, either power source can be used to power the wheels. The Prius is a parallel hybrid and uses the electric motor until the car accelerates to 12 mph, the speed below which gasoline engine emissions are at their worst. Once 12 mph is attained, the car's gasoline engine takes over. When maximum power is required, on a steep incline for example, the electric motor returns to action. While the Prius operates on gasoline power, the engine recharges the electric motor's batteries, eliminating the need for at-rest charging from an outside power source.

A number of European manufacturers, and Chrysler, Ford and GM here in the United States, have shown working prototypes of hybrids that could go on sale in seven to ten years. The increased fuel efficiency and reduced emissions make the hybrid an attractive concept, but as long as gasoline is sold as cheaply in this country as it is at present, the hybrid will suffer from consumer resistance to small, efficient automobiles.

Flywheels
Another energy storage device under development for use in hybrid vehicles is the flywheel, a low-cost version of which has successfully passed a number of tests. Unique Mobility, Inc., working for Ford, developed the flywheel device as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's cost-shared Hybrid Propulsion System Development Program. The flywheel is, in effect, a mechanical battery with a much higher power-to-energy ratio and a much greater resistance to cycle fatigue.

The Unique flywheel uses incoming electricity from the engine or regenerative braking to spin the composite rotor to a very high speed, storing the energy kinetically. To draw power from the flywheel, the process is reversed, and the spinning wheel drives its motor/generator to convert efficiently the kinetic energy back into electricity.

A Smog-Eating Radiator
Volvo, which is often associated with safety, has introduced what it calls a "smog-eating" radiator. The device first appeared on the company's new S80 and will be added to later models.

The low-cost device is a catalyst system that, when applied to a vehicle's radiator, destroys ozone with which it comes in contact. The technology was developed by Engelhard Corporation, a New Jersey company that in 1976 built the three-way catalytic converter used on most cars today to reduce exhaust emissions. The new device involves coating a vehicle's radiator with a base-metal catalyst. Then, as air passes over the radiator, ozone — the main component of smog — is converted into oxygen, thereby improving the atmosphere.

Recycled Cars
Cars do not present nearly the recycling problem that tires and many other familiar items do. The Wall Street Journal states that the automobile is one of the most recycled products in America. Only 20% of glass, 30% of paper products and 61% of aluminum cans in the U.S. are recycled. But 95% of the 10 million cars and trucks that pass from useful life each year go to recyclers. And of each of those 9.5 million vehicles, 75% by weight is recovered for reuse.

As the use of new materials, particularly plastic, rises in new cars, the amount of weight per vehicle could fall from its present level. One automaker, BMW, has begun to address this potential problem.

BMW has integrated environmental and recycling criteria into the earliest stages of its new-vehicle development cycle. BMW considers a vehicle's life to be a closed system, encompassing development, manufacture, use and recycling.

Not only does the German company consider the raw materials and natural resources consumed during production, but it carefully selects these materials with a view toward their eventual suitability for recycling. BMW's concerns go all the way toward reducing emissions in the cars it builds and at the factories where they are made.

BMW is by no means the only manufacturer with a "green" attitude, but the company took one of the earliest public stances on environmental issues.

Progress at the Pump
Gasoline refiners and automakers are working together not only to meet exhaust pollution standards set by the Clean Air Act, but also to do so efficiently. It stands to reason that the manufacturer of an engine and the manufacturer of the substance that powers it would work together in the cause of efficiency. This has not, however, always been the case, and this new cooperation between refiners and automakers is an innovation in itself.

One of the results of this cooperation has been the creation of oxygenated gas, which enhances the combustion process inside the engine. Beginning six years ago, service stations in certain pollution-plagued urban areas were required to sell oxygenated fuel in the winter months. The EPA says the program has been instrumental in reducing the number of days these areas exceeded federal carbon-monoxide standards.

An oil industry spokesperson estimates that the oxygenation process adds three to five cents per gallon to the price of gasoline at the pump.

The Greening of Detroit
For some years now, automobiles have been redesigned to meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act. For example, ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons have been absent from air-conditioning systems in new vehicles for more than three years. Now the air-conditioning systems use hydrofluorocarbons, which are believed not to erode the ozone layer.

In 1991, Detroit's Big Three automakers formed a group called the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP) to study new vehicle designs and components that would simplify and expand recycling efforts. One example of the VRP's efforts involves reducing the number of different plastics used in a subassembly, such as a dashboard, which can incorporate more than a dozen disparate plastic materials. Cutting this number in half would be a major positive step. Polypropylene will likely emerge as the front-runner as the number of plastic variants decreases, subsequently lessening dependence on PVC and polyester. Polypropylene already accounts for one-third of the plastic used by the auto industry, and this is expected to rise by 50% in the next few years.

Dr. Sandy Labana, who heads the VRP, says that it has achieved its goal of finding ways to remove 95% of a to-be-recycled car's or truck's fluids (i.e., fuel, oil, transmission fluid, etc.) in 20 minutes or less. According to Dr. Labana, at this improved rate of removal, draining a vehicle's fluids — as opposed to dumping them — becomes profitable to a recycler.