There’s an ever increasing range of fuel choice for cars today. With the non-stop rise of petrol and diesel prices, this can surely only be a good thing for drivers of family cars but it can be a bit confusing to understand what exactly the alternative options are, and what benefits theybring.Diesel produces lower CO2 emissions than petrol, as diesel engines are more efficient. It still has a reputation for being a ‘dirtier’ fuel than petrol because it has higher emissions of NOx (nitrous oxide) and particulates. However, diesels can now be fitted with a filter to lower particulate emissions.

LPG (liquid petroleum gas) produces lower emissions but loses out to petrol and diesel on fuel consumption. Engines also need to be converted to run on LPG.Biofuel is actually a blend of a natural oil – like rapeseed – and diesel. Biofuel produces less CO2 emissions than diesel, but requires a significant amount of agricultural land to be produced, which has been linked to risingfood prices as a consequence.

Biopetrol is a blend of ethanol (produced from crops such as sugarcane) and petrol. As long as there is less than 10% ethanol in the blend, there’s no need to adapt the engine. Biopetrol has been a great success in Brazil, thanks to government incentives and programmes.Although still in the development stages compared to other alternatives, hydrogen is seen as the best alternative fuel in terms of emissions – its only emission is water. Electric cars produce no emissions, but if you include the source of the electricity, it’s likely that it’s produced through fossil fuel burning, so there are still CO2 emissions attributable to the running of electric cars. 

Hybrids use a combination of petrol or diesel with an electric motor, which takes the strain off the engine and thereforesaves on fuel consumption. The continued use of universally available petrol or diesel combined with the electric motor seems the most sensible choice in terms of helping the environment and saving money on fuel while other alternativefuels still have teething problems.