Braden Wall 11-5-13 Annotated bibliography The research question in which I have chosen is "What alternative energy source

would provide us with the same or better power in our vehicles?" I work at a car dealership and therefore I am very exposed to things like hybrids and the idea of an electric car. Although the car side of alternative energy is just the beginning of the list of things we could find other fuel sources for, but it is what I will be focusing on. There are many options on the idea of alternative energy but there are many things that need to be considered when looking at these different options, the one that I will be focusing, like I mentions before, is on whether or not it provides sufficient "power".

<Alphabetize by authors last name> 1.) "Polyester based on biodiesel industry residues" Ricardo F. Carvalho, international congress on advances in applied physics and material science. Summary: They talk about biodiesel and how it's effectiveness could impact our search for alternative fuel. Biodiesel and Glycerol are made from vegetable oil and methanol mixed together and forming a reaction to create the finished product. The product shows promising results that could help us in the search for alternative energy, and it is low cost to make. However just like everything else there are still many things that need to be evaluated. Rhetorical analysis: I think that this source is good because I have heard of many things before this article that were talking about the use of biodiesel as an alternative fuel source. There was a documentary about how there is a company making this stuff, and in fact all of their semi fleet ran off of it. That to me showed that it provides a pretty decent amount of power if they are running tanker trucks with it. Reflection: Biodiesel does look like it could be a promising replacement, I have heard a down side that when the oil burns it smells like what ever was cooked in that grease last... Which may be a bit strange but I think it would be a smart trade. The real important thing is its strong enough to power a semi.

2.)

"Car shopping? Double your mileage." Rick Newman, Your World.

Summary: This article talks about how if you're in the market for a new car you may consider buying a hybrid. It starts by saying the old hybrids had a very noticeable loss in power but many of the new ones offer the same amount of power as a fully powerd gas engine. Although the hybrids are a bit more expensive but offer 40 percent better fuel consumption it is up to the buyer to figure out where he will be saving. Rhetorical analysis: I like this article because it makes complete since. When hybrids first started to come out they were very lacking in power. But now they are actually pretty impressive. They get great fuel economy with close power ratings. Which is exactly what my question is looking for. Reflection: when hybrids first started to come out I did not really like them because they were not powerful and some still aren't, but there are those that are, they even have some sport cars that run off a hybrid motor and still have very good performance. 3.) "Performance and emissions of an engine fueled with a biodiesel fuel produced from animal fats" Imdat Taymaz, Thermal science Summary: This article looks at the possibilities of using biodiesel made from animal fats in diesel engines. It talks about how the first person to think of using bio diesel in a diesel motor comes from the man who invented diesel motors in the first place, Rudolf Diesel. The conclusion was that they were affective and could be used, there was a slight loss in power but less co2 gas was released in the air according to the experiments. Rhetorical analysis: The idea and the outcome is interesting, the idea does not seem as farfetched as some of the others, although the thought of animal fat is a little odd. But they are taking smaller steps in that it is effective and releases less co2. Maybe taking baby steps will eventually get us to the right idea. Reflection: I like that it is trying to solve the problem but it is not taking it all the way at one time. One part of finding an alternative energy source is so that we are not harming the planet, or ourselves for that matter, and this article takes that into consideration by saying it will release less co2 gas. But we also pay for that by having a slight decrees in power, which refers us back to the research question. It doesn't come right out and say exactly What the decrease in power is but it could have an impact or may not have one at all.

4.) "New methods of manufacturing alternative fuels from renewable feedstock sources" V. A. Viokurov. Chemistry and technology of fuels and oils, vol 46 No. 2

Summary: This article talks about how biodiesel could be very effective but also could cause problems in how it is mixed with ethanol which is created by corn, in turn could make our food supply go down and the cost of our food to go up. So they look at wood and such things since they contain lignin. It talks about how many trees fall in the forest every year and that if they could gather those trees up and get the lignin from inside the tree using certain tactics that maybe we could use that as an alternative fuel. Rhetorical analysis: I think the idea is interesting especially because we are not really harming the environment since the trees fall over naturally but I can't help but think that if we used this as a fuel that we would start using so much that the demand would sky rocket and then we would just start cutting down the trees and that would make everything worse. But they do make it sound very possible. Reflection: I like how this one takes a bit of a different approach using the topic of lignin for a fuel. I am familiar with lignin, from my 5 years of wood shop classes, but I would of never thought of it as an alternative fuel source. I do like, however, that it is picking a natural resource like the other articles. 5.) "Game changing" -no author was listed-

Summary: There is this race and all of the cars have to be run off of solar power. So this group of people has to figure out the most efficient way to make the car run. It has to go up to 80km/hr and is going through very tough terrain. They made the car and it works great, its solar plate is protected by a clear plastic dome and it is programmed to follow the trajectory of the sun which results in a 20 percent increase in power. Also its drive train is located inside the wheels creating a 98% efficient system. Rhetorical analysis: this is a very good article, it describes many reasons inside as to why we would be able to use solar as an alternative energy. I also like that it talks about how they made it and why it works and gave us some percentages to compare to. It also recognizes my research question, it says that it has many power increases and also that it can go over 80k /hr over rugged terrain. Reflection: It adds many points like the other articles do in the since that we don't have to have an extreme loss of power with an alternative energy source in our vehicles. I honestly did not think that solar would be powerful enough but according to this article and some things I've seen lately, this one actually has many strong points. I also think it will help the cars be lighter due to that fact that they are made more simply and there is also not as much that could go wrong. And I think, like the other article, this information could get people buying hybrids as we'll. Showing that just because they use electric does not mean they are weak.

In conclusion you can see that many of these show quite promising results, but the main thing I am looking for is the efficiency. The one that really surprised me was the article about solar, although I think it may need some more further experimenting to make sure it can handle all types of vehicles. I think the safest thing right now is the hybrids, they use a combination of fuel and electric and I think this will really help our resources and also our environment, we can use hybrids while the others get more and more efficient and we can slowly move into complete electric.