FollowWith the fear of natural fuel supply dwindling, the world is moving toward adopting greener options of energy. Research is going on to develop vehicles which run on biofuel. But, have you ever thought that vehicles could run on food waste?
Here are few vehicles that run on food waste.
1. Volkswagen Beetle Bio-Bug
The decomposition of human waste produces methane, which is used to power the Volkswagen Beetle Bio-Bug. The car starts out on unleaded gasoline and automatically switches to methane when the engine gets warm enough. For the car to run for 10 000 miles, the equivalent of one motoring year, all it requires is the excreta from seventy homes. The VW Beetle can run at a top speed of 114 mph on methane, which is not less than its performance on gasoline, making it a green vehicle.
2. BioFuel Green Vehicle
Here’s another vehicle that gets the “green” label as it runs on biomethane from human waste. It took a year to build this truck that will be fuelled by biomethane produced at Swedish International biogas plant. Initial test-drives by a team from Kettering University gave encouraging performance data.
3. Recycled Racer Runs on Veggie Oil and Chocolate
If regular cars can go green, why not race cars too. A team from Britain created this Formula 3 race car that will run on vegetable oil and waste chocolate. What’s more, the body of the car will be made from recycled carbon fibre, old plastic bottles, and organic materials. The car’s turbocharged engine will use biodiesel and biodegradable lubricants.
4. Chocolate-Powered F3 Racer
You may be gobsmacked to know that this race car is not only powered by green fuel, but some of its parts are made of edible material. The steering wheel is partly made of carrot pulp and its engine runs on chocolate biodiesel. Tests have shown that the car can reach 60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds and drive wheel-to-wheel with other conventional F3 cars.
5. Chocolate Powered Biotruck
Here’s another truck powered by biodiesel from chocolate waste. The aim of building this truck was to promote the use of recycled waste instead of diverting precious food crops to manufacture the biofuel.
6. Grease cars
Every household and restaurant discards loads of waste vegetable oil every month. Grease cars utilize this waste and are proud of giving the same mileage as regular diesel cars. Emission tests have shown that grease cars emit less toxins when compared to their conventional counterparts making it a green vehicle.
8. Veggie-Fuelled Van
Two Canadian environmentalists created a new Guinness World Record for the ‘longest journey by a car using alternative fuel’ travelling at 45 000 km across the US in a vehicle that runs on waste vegetable oil. The vehicle was a Mitsubishi Delica, powered by a 2.5 litre turbodiesel engine.
9. Coffee-Powered Car
Called the ‘car-puccino’, Jem Stansfield designed the car that is powered by used coffee grounds. The car uses coffee equivalent to about 11 000 espressos to complete the 150 mile trip between London and Manchester. The boot of the car houses a furnace where flammable vapors are generated from the roasted grounds. These vapors fuel the engine.The car was reported to have reached a speed of 70 mph.
10. Eco Buses
These heavy-duty, low-emission buses are powered by ethanol generated from waste timber. Unlike countries like the US and Brazil who generate ethanol from corn, sugarcane, and other food crops, Sweden is proud of this technology that uses waste timber, ensuring that food supply is not affected. What’s most interesting is that these buses emit 90% less carbon dioxide than conventional diesel-fuelled buses.
Source: ecofriend
