18/04/2011
Burning up the highway
A few posts ago we brought you a car which ran on leftover Indian restaurant vegetable oil – now we bring you a 25-year-old wood-powered Chevrolet pick-up truck. The Finnish vehicle owner has modified his truck so that it now has a wood-burning stove in the back, just behind the rear window.
The car is run on the gas produced by the wood, which is burned in an oxygen-deprived environment. Although this might sound as if it would produce a lot of emissions, in fact this process is relatively eco-friendly and emission-low.
Apparently the vehicle can travel 125 miles on 76.2 kg of wood chips, and if the motorist wants to drive further than that – the pick-up can still fit enough timber in the back for an extra 800 miles, despite the stove taking up some room.
Plus, the man claims that he can still reach a top speed of around 90mph with this unconventional fuel.
After the wood has been burned the ash can be used to make fertiliser, so that nothing is wasted – however one disadvantage is that it can take around 20 minutes for the stove to become hot enough to produce gas and get the car moving.
No last minute dashes to get dinner before the shops close then – or spur of the moment cinema outings just as the trailers are set to begin.
Image by Creativity103 via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car, eco-friendly, emissions, fuel, motorist, speed, vehicle
01/04/2011
Unleaded, and premium…water?
Warning: this is not an April Fools – no, really, it isn’t.
A Japanese company called Genepax has apparently created an eco-friendly car which runs on water alone.
Unbelievable? Yes. True? It’s up on the firm’s website and looks thoroughly credible.
On just one litre of water, the vehicle makers claim that the car can run at 50mph for an hour. According to the proud firm, you can even fuel the vehicle with tea or fizzy drinks and it’s emission free!
It works by breaking the water down into its composite parts, using an energy generator located at the rear of the car. Using the hydrogen contained in the liquid, electric power is produced when it enters a generator. also located in the vehicle.
Reports say that inventors of the water-powered car, aim to enter into collaboration with Japanese car manufacturing firms and begin to mass produce it.
Who knows, maybe in a few years water cars will be the norm and we’ll all be complaining about how wasteful those old electric, battery-powered vehicles were. Alternatively, we may all be anticipating a world-wide water shortage.
A Japanese company called Genepax has apparently created an eco-friendly car which runs on water alone.
Unbelievable? Yes. True? It’s up on the firm’s website and looks thoroughly credible. On just one litre of water, the vehicle makers claim that the car can run at 50mph for an hour. According to the proud firm, you can even fuel the vehicle with tea or fizzy drinks and it’s emission free!
It works by breaking the water down into its composite parts, using an energy generator located at the rear of the car. Using the hydrogen contained in the liquid, electric power is produced when it enters a generator. also located in the vehicle.
Reports say that inventors of the water-powered car, aim to enter into collaboration with Japanese car manufacturing firms and begin to mass produce it.
Who knows, maybe in a few years water cars will be the norm and we’ll all be complaining about how wasteful those old electric, battery-powered vehicles were. Alternatively, we may all be anticipating a world-wide water shortage.
Image by Greg Reigler Photography via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car, electric power, emissions
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