Alternative Vehicular Fuels for Environmental Decarbonization: A Critical Review of Challenges in Using Electricity, Hydrogen, and Biofuels as a Sustainable Vehicular Fuel

Using vehicles powered by alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen, and biofuels have been envisioned as the ideal way to curb noxious vehicular emissions. However, the availability of resources for the sustainable use of these alternative fuels, the possible risks, and their fate at the end of their life are frequently questioned, necessitating a detailed assessment of factors influencing the use of all three alternative fuels for vehicular use. Though the vehicles powered by batteries and fuel cells are “locally” zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs), they have resource scarcity, infrastructure limitations and are relatively expensive, thus restricting their market penetration and consumer acceptance. Biofuels, though can be used in the existing vehicles, procuring the required amounts of feedstock, and mitigating food-versus-fuel issues is still a challenge. Overcoming these challenges is a crucial and critical step for the sustained use of these alternative fuels as primary vehicular fuels. To accomplish this, all these challenges need to be categorized and a comparative analysis among them is necessary to address them. This work can therefore serve as a ready reference for researchers and policy makers to take appropriate and informed decisions for long-term action to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement to reduce global temperature.