MOTORISTS could halve their greenhouse gas emissions by trading in their petrol-fuelled cars for diesel-electric hybrids or cars powered by fuel cells, according to a comprehensive study by the oil giant Shell.
"According to the calculations in our study, there is a considerable greenhouse gas benefit by changing to hybrid or fuel cell vehicles in the near future," Jurgen Louis told the Society of Automotive Engineers in Detroit last week.
Louis, a Shell researcher based in Hamburg, and his colleagues in Britain looked at all the greenhouse emissions involved in using different types of fuel. This "well to wheel" analysis included emissions produced during the extraction, manufacture and distribution of the fuels, as well as from the cars themselves.
The study shows that some apparently clean technologies are not so pristine. Using liquefied hydrogen would produce more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional cars running on petrol. "Liquefying hydrogen is very ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.
