07/10/2011
Caffeinated car
Do you need coffee to get you up and running? Well a car which shares that trait with many people has just broken the world speed record for organic waste-fuelled vehicles.
The British-made car, a modified Rover SD1, managed to beat the previous title holder by reaching an average speed of 66.5mph. The vehicle pushed from the top spot, a wood-pellet fuelled car, only managed 47mph by comparison.
The engineers of the caffeine-fuelled car used waste coffee granules which would otherwise be dumped into landfill.
This coffee car isn’t the only one around though. BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory showed a similar vehicle off on their show. It was a Volkswagen Sirocco and it is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the organic waste-fuelled vehicle to have travelled the furthest (London to Manchester).
One of the presenters explained how the car worked. “It’s like an old charcoal burner. The coffee is heated up like charcoal. Then the combustion gases, which are generally carbon dioxide and water vapour, are reduced by hot carbon to carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
“This is then filtered by a cyclone filter and a rock wool filter and cooled down by a radiator. By the end the gas is a lot cooler and cleaner and is piped through to the engine. The coffee gas, the carbon monoxide and hydrogen, goes in the cylinders and the explosion drives the engine.”
Both these cars would be great for coffee lovers. In the morning they could make their brew to wake themselves up, and then go and use the left-overs to wake their car up!
The British-made car, a modified Rover SD1, managed to beat the previous title holder by reaching an average speed of 66.5mph. The vehicle pushed from the top spot, a wood-pellet fuelled car, only managed 47mph by comparison.The engineers of the caffeine-fuelled car used waste coffee granules which would otherwise be dumped into landfill.
This coffee car isn’t the only one around though. BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory showed a similar vehicle off on their show. It was a Volkswagen Sirocco and it is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the organic waste-fuelled vehicle to have travelled the furthest (London to Manchester).
One of the presenters explained how the car worked. “It’s like an old charcoal burner. The coffee is heated up like charcoal. Then the combustion gases, which are generally carbon dioxide and water vapour, are reduced by hot carbon to carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
“This is then filtered by a cyclone filter and a rock wool filter and cooled down by a radiator. By the end the gas is a lot cooler and cleaner and is piped through to the engine. The coffee gas, the carbon monoxide and hydrogen, goes in the cylinders and the explosion drives the engine.”
Both these cars would be great for coffee lovers. In the morning they could make their brew to wake themselves up, and then go and use the left-overs to wake their car up!
Photo © saturn via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: automotive engineering, car, coffee, combustion, organic waste-fuelled, Rover SD1, speed record
14/04/2011
British pride, it’s… Chinese
It’s a sad thing that the days of British manufacturing are long gone but it’s also true that these days being a mature and developed nation, invariably means having only very limited heavy industry.
In the heyday of British manufacturing almost all families contributed in one way or another to sectors such as aviation, pharmaceuticals, textiles and tobacco.
Perhaps none was more ingrained in the national identity than motor vehicle manufacturing. Names like Vauxhall, Leyland, Rover, Mini, Metro, MG, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lotus and Jaguar all became synonymous with British pride and excellence in automotive engineering.
These days very little motor manufacturing lives on. Yes, many major names still have a presence – Ford, Honda, Nissan, Mini, Morris and Jaguar Land Rover are just some of the companies which still retain UK vehicle production plants – but it is a scaled down presence and the industry does not employ anything like the hundreds of thousands of workers it used to.
At least Nissan, Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover can lay claim to decent levels of vehicle production, as all produce over 200,000 vehicles a year, but it certainly isn’t the same, particularly when there is only a limited level of British ownership.
Still, that didn’t prevent me from feeling excited at the news that MG is to produce its first completely new vehicle in 16 years. Yes, it is a now a Chinese owned brand, but MG is one of the most iconic of all British brands and the new model, the MG6, has been engineered in Britain and will be assembled over here at the famous plant in Longbridge, the West Midlands. I certainly won’t allow myself to make tired jokes about MG going all MSG.
My first thoughts on seeing pictures of the new vehicle? Well, I’m disappointed to say that I think it looks a bit samey, so I very much doubt I’ll be seeking a cheap car insurance quote for an MG6 any time soon, but I will reserve final judgement until I see it up close and in the metal.
In the heyday of British manufacturing almost all families contributed in one way or another to sectors such as aviation, pharmaceuticals, textiles and tobacco.
Perhaps none was more ingrained in the national identity than motor vehicle manufacturing. Names like Vauxhall, Leyland, Rover, Mini, Metro, MG, Aston Martin, Bentley, Lotus and Jaguar all became synonymous with British pride and excellence in automotive engineering.These days very little motor manufacturing lives on. Yes, many major names still have a presence – Ford, Honda, Nissan, Mini, Morris and Jaguar Land Rover are just some of the companies which still retain UK vehicle production plants – but it is a scaled down presence and the industry does not employ anything like the hundreds of thousands of workers it used to.
At least Nissan, Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover can lay claim to decent levels of vehicle production, as all produce over 200,000 vehicles a year, but it certainly isn’t the same, particularly when there is only a limited level of British ownership.
Still, that didn’t prevent me from feeling excited at the news that MG is to produce its first completely new vehicle in 16 years. Yes, it is a now a Chinese owned brand, but MG is one of the most iconic of all British brands and the new model, the MG6, has been engineered in Britain and will be assembled over here at the famous plant in Longbridge, the West Midlands. I certainly won’t allow myself to make tired jokes about MG going all MSG.
My first thoughts on seeing pictures of the new vehicle? Well, I’m disappointed to say that I think it looks a bit samey, so I very much doubt I’ll be seeking a cheap car insurance quote for an MG6 any time soon, but I will reserve final judgement until I see it up close and in the metal.
Image © dok1 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: automotive engineering, cheap car insurance quote, manufacturing, MG, motor vehicle
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