HOWTO Convert your car to run on garbage
Stef sez, "Here's an Instructable explaining in 25 simple steps how to convert your car to run on household trash using a process called Gasification. As the site sez: 'Gasification is the use of heat to tranform solid biomass, or other carbonaceous solids, into a synthetic "natural gas like" flammable fuel.' Not only that, but as a benefit it pimps your car out with a fantastic steampunky contraption to impress your fellow road users with!"
Convert your Honda Accord to run on trash (Thanks, Stef!)
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Do any of the steps include, "plug flux capacitor into slot B?"
Nevermind, I see its mentioned in the first line of the intro. Looks like the conversion heats the material and burns the released gases.
If this really works, it's truly fantastic.
But aesthetically speaking, "Mr. Fusion" was
a much nicer design.
I see others have already mentioned "Mr. Fusion".
So what are we talking about here, in terms of emissions?
it appears, from the picture, that the post might should have been titled "how to make your trash run on trash"...
So the trash either rots slowly in landfill or quicker on the highway. I vote for releasing the emissions on the highway - and if it smells like burning trash, that's why universities train engineers, to make things work better and cheaper.
Cooool toy.
P.S.
Love the pressure gauge - but it should have a big red zone at the top.
Well, if I was going to tinker with experimental fuel conversions --especially ones where you're bolting a lot of stuff to the car-- I'd want to do it with a junky car, too.
If you screw up, you're down a lot less money.
These guys are great. They're in the Shipyard in Berkley and have done a lot of experimenting with solar, off-grid power (by necessity since Berkley wouldn't hook them up at first) and gassifiers. Check out their web site at:
http://www.theshipyard.org/
And vote for the gassified Honda in the instructables contest!
In the movie Double Dragon there was a car that ran on trash. There was an incinerator in the center console, & they drove through trash piles grabbing stuff to burn.
My car already runs on garbage. It says right on the Gas Pump: 'May contain up to 10% Ethanol by volume'.
This is great, thanks!
Now if only I had an old Honda :).
I DO have on old Honda, exactly like that...
In the video, they lift the car with a forklift. Forklift included?
In the video, the guy says "its running on woodchips" which is hardly garbage.
Nice project. Glad to see the word being spread. We will be needing stuff like this. For a more elegant adaptation, you might like to look at this 48 Chevy pickup built by a Mr. Mel Strand, of Boulder, Colorado. (His inspiration was a similar vehicle he'd driven in Europe during WW II.
Call me an aesthete if you will, but I like Mr. Strand's version better. (Yes, I know the story is about a proof-0f-concept experiment, but I'd still rather drive around the town in Mr. S's vehicle.)
Yes, that should work, in theory at least.
Good luck passing an emissions test, though.
So what needs to be done to the process to make this useful on a mass producable scale?
Sleze @#16:
Well, buy a biogas Volvo, and go down to your local biogas fuel station and fill it up.
Not a problem in some of the more cutting edge countries, e.g. Sweden.
Same problem as with all these little off-grid things. The technolgies will only make if they are developed on commercial scales. Individual biomass converters will never be the answer. Really big ones might turn out to be a good idea, though.
Aa always though, it's all just playing around the edges until we are serious about getting the primate infestation under control.
Absolutely awesome. I bet it'd run even better with a lightweight rail buggy. Maybe someday, I'll be able to test that theory, as I saved the PDF. Thanks, Cory!
Because this guy no longer wants to go on dates??
the Shipyard has truly risen again
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/11/evicted-berkeleys-sh.html
@pipenta re. emissions: when a gassifier is running right the product gas coming out of it is Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide (and a bunch of Nitrogen). That product gas is then fed directly into the air intake of the car.
The car then burns the hydrogen and carbon monoxide, producing water and CO2. The gasifier also produces solid ash and char (charcoal).
"Honey, where did you put the groceries?"
"In the trunk."
"Oh."
while a car makes for more fun, it seems a good use of this would be as and electric generator that doesn't have to move!
People did this in WWII too because there was no gasoline then.
hi, this is one of the builders of the car. some answers to questions.
yes, the premise here is very old. we're just trying to show how accessible this tech is to upgrading with contemporary tech and open source innovation methods.
we have developed a kit that allows people to easily step into gasification, and have a common base ontop of which to refine, collaborate and improve things. the kit is called the Gasifier Experimenters Kit (GEK). see here: http://www.allpowerlabs.org/gasification/gek/index.html
you can build the kit from sheetmetal and parts we supply. or you can build it from obtainium scrap tanks. we've chosen dimensions that are common with scrap so you have multiple paths to realize the same end product.
hardware open source projects are hard. replication is not free nor is it perfect in the world of hardware. also, ADD is less adaptive in physical building than in coding environments. all fo this only gets more the further you move away from electronics and into the world of metal, fire and mechanical machines. but this is what we are trying to do.
it is somewhat of a process of taking the highest contemporary tech to some of the lowest and oldest tech around. after spears, it was pretty much fire. and after fire, it was pretty much gasification. well, the wheel and lever are in there somewhere. but gasification is very early on the list. it was first figured out in steel refining. the first internal combustion engines ran on gasifier gas. no one had petroleum fuels at that point. refined liquid petroleum fuels are very late in the story of engines.
and yes, the emissions from an engine burning gsifier gas can be extremely clean. you are oxidizing co and h2. each only has one step to the end products of combustion, co2 and h2o. most liquid fuels are starting with very complicated molecules, usually in the neighborhood of c7h14, and going through many interim steps before ending at co2 and h2o. not everythign makes it through all these steps. thus hydrocarbon emissions.
a gasifier is essentially doing all the "precombustion" steps, making the engine somewhat of an afterburner. now getting the gasifier started and working well can be a gigantic mess, but once it is running, the total system if very clean.
when things are in order, the honda would likely beat a brand new prius at the smog station.
jim
But does it help you score?
My question is whether or not the name is a subtle reference to Fallout? (GEK ~ GECK)
Jamie & Adam need to build a gasifier on Mythbusters. Not because I believe it is a myth that needs busting, but because they can show a very large audience that this is a real & useful technology & their hands-on approach is a good way of showing how it is done. This is an article that will be difficult to forget after gasoline is back up over four dollars a gallon.
How does one measure fuel efficiency on the gasifier anyway? Miles per pound per fuel type?
Gasified car does not need to be boring, here's V8 http://www.fortel.fi/images/isokamina.jpg and if you wonder how it sounds check http://www.kaleva.fi/plus/index.cfm?extra=-10&naytaIkkunassa=1&vidId=731&vid=Katsastus_0.flv&logo=kaleva
around 2:45
Finnish autotech strikes again! Very nice!
That's a pretty sweet ride.
What is that, an '84 Renault Alliance?