Post by: erik the bold on March 01, 2006, 09:10:55 AM
Feb. 17, 2006
Five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. (CBS)
Link here with pics/video: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/17/eveningnews/main1329941.shtml
(CBS) The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.
But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot.
A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School
The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.
"We have a number of high school dropouts," he says. "We have a number that have been removed for disciplinary reasons and they end up with us."
One of the Fab Five, Kosi Harmon, was in a gang at his old school and he was a terrible student. The car project has changed all that.
"I was just getting by with the skin of my teeth, C's and D's," he says. "I came here, and now I'm a straight-A student."
To Hauger, the soybean-powered car shows what kids any kids can do when they get the chance.
"If you give kids that have been stereotyped as not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up," he says.
Stepping up is something the big automakers have yet to do. They're still in the early stages of marketing hybrid cars while playing catch-up to the Bad News Bears of auto shop.
"We made this work," says Hauger. "We're not geniuses. So why aren't they doing it?"
Kosi thinks he knows why. The answer, he says, is the big oil companies.
"They're making billions upon billions of dollars," he says. "And when this car sells, that'll go down to low billions upon billions."
---------------------------------
I want one........
Post by: Guest on March 01, 2006, 09:37:51 AM
Or, "Big Oil" will buy their idea for a million or two, and sit on it. They must have 200-300 of these things in the secret lair by now.
;-)
JEB
Post by: El Tejon on March 01, 2006, 09:50:35 AM
Didn't some sage like individual post on there that as of that time someone was busy coming up with a solution instead of whining and moaning? Who was that brilliant individual?
He's so smart and handsome and a sharp dresser and a great dancer.
Post by: El Tejon on March 01, 2006, 09:52:34 AM
http://d2302.tt32.wellbuiltnetworks.net/viewtopic.php?id=1613
Post by: El Tejon on March 01, 2006, 09:56:36 AM
DEATH! CALAMITY! END OF THE WORLD! BEARS AND PUMAS LIVING TOGETHER WITHOUT BEING MARRIED!
WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE!
I blame George Bush and Haliburton for this soybean shortage.
Ha, hah, read and learn antis! You cannot stop free, creative people. They will go around you and your listless, regimented utopian dreams. Bwaaahahah! *where's that EVIL smilie thingy?*
Post by: charby on March 01, 2006, 10:05:55 AM
Go back to bitching about monkey butts and ass antlers.
Charby
Post by: El Tejon on March 01, 2006, 10:13:18 AM
I blame George Bush and Haliburton.
Post by: Justin on March 01, 2006, 10:37:47 AM
Why, in my day, cars ran on petroleum pulled out of the ground! We didn't have any interest in making a car run on vegetable matter!
Get off my lawn!
And pull your pants up!
Post by: Warren on March 01, 2006, 11:10:06 AM
Great, just what we need a vegan car...
Post by: crt360 on March 01, 2006, 11:33:15 AM
Fifty miles per gallon of what? Is it a beanburner? Do they just pour beans into the gas tank or are they using Kikkoman's? Cheeseborough, Kosi, what up, yo?
Post by: jefnvk on March 01, 2006, 11:45:46 AM
Post by: erik the bold on March 01, 2006, 11:47:06 AM
Quote from: crt360
Fifty miles per gallon of what?
Biodiesel. Make your own: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html
Post by: charby on March 01, 2006, 11:54:54 AM
Post by: Felonious Monk/Fignozzle on March 01, 2006, 12:11:24 PM
That pic's almost...zenlike...
It makes me want to chant, or meditate, or something...
Maybe, roll a doobie.
I am One with the Universe...
Aaauuummmm
Post by: charby on March 01, 2006, 12:43:08 PM
C
Post by: crt360 on March 01, 2006, 01:12:06 PM
Post by: Iain on March 01, 2006, 02:15:50 PM
Be careful boys. The mechanic of the future may have an awesome curvy figure from behind. But I bet he is mean with a monkey wrench.
Post by: USP45usp on March 01, 2006, 02:51:12 PM
How much of the land, now used for produce for consumption, as well as grazing grounds, would be needed to grow enough food for human consumption and enough soybeans for fuel?
Just a thought. It's a great idea but what is the ratio of food lands to fuel lands.
Wayne
Post by: Guest on March 01, 2006, 03:01:12 PM
Quote from: USP45usp
To power every car in the US, how much land would need to be used to grow enough soybeans to make enough fuel?
How much of the land, now used for produce for consumption, as well as grazing grounds, would be needed to grow enough food for human consumption and enough soybeans for fuel?
Just a thought. It's a great idea but what is the ratio of food lands to fuel lands.
Wayne
I wish I still had a source, but I remember reading recently that bio-fuel can never replace crude oil for these very reasons. It takes a lot of organic matter to make the stuff and I dont think there is enough land to make it. Its still a step in the right direction.How much of the land, now used for produce for consumption, as well as grazing grounds, would be needed to grow enough food for human consumption and enough soybeans for fuel?
Just a thought. It's a great idea but what is the ratio of food lands to fuel lands.
Wayne
I wish they had a better picture of the car, I have a funny fealing that the performance is a result of the cars size/weight.
Post by: jefnvk on March 01, 2006, 03:38:54 PM
Post by: Justin on March 01, 2006, 05:11:29 PM
Quote
I wish I still had a source, but I remember reading recently that bio-fuel can never replace crude oil for these very reasons. It takes a lot of organic matter to make the stuff and I dont think there is enough land to make it. Its still a step in the right direction.
Reason Magazine's Ronald Bailey wrote an interesting article with regard to biologically-derived vehicle fuels a few weeks back. He pointed out that it's very likely that within a few years scientists would devise new and better crops that would break down into fuel more easily, yield higher quantities of fuel after being processed, and that there would be other developments to increase power output and make processing and refining more efficient.While I'm no Peak Oil chicken little, it's my belief that the future will include power generated from more than one method, rather than relying on fossil fuels alone.
Post by: USP45usp on March 01, 2006, 05:34:32 PM
).I too would like to give the finger to butt holes like chavez and the oil barons that get together and regulate the output of oil depending on how they feel that day. If it could happen, the car in that time travel movie with Jamie Fox would be great, solve two problems at once, trash and gass.
Another important factor is safety. Sure, the lighter you build the car the better the gas mileage but then you have to give up the strenght of the metal around you to help in a crash. Ever seen a fuel efficent tin can after it met up with a non fuel efficent big rig or a normal sized car.. it ain't pretty.
Then you have price. The highly touted (is that a word) "Bio-Fueled Vechicles" around here spend over $3 per gallon of fuel. Now, it was supposed to be cheaper, and it is to make, but it costs more at the station. The last time I spoke with Grants, a lawn care taker company in town, they were buying bio-diesel for $3.75 a gallon. So what happened, they raised their rates, and lost about a 1/3rd of their business. Sure they got a great write up in the fish wrapper (newspaper) but that doesn't pay the bills.
Americans aren't going to pay for something that is going to actually cost them more no matter how enviromentally friendly it is. You could make a car that could run on sea water but when sea water is then sold at $3.75 per gallon, then they will go back to gas. Even if it comes out cheaper in the long run, Americans don't look at the long term but only looks at the now.
Also, here in Oregon they are pushing mass transit. I tried it once. In my car, as evil as it is, it took me 20 minutes to get across town. On the bus, it took 3 hours (one way) to get to the same place and I had to switch busses three times, with a minimum wait of 20 to 30 min. between changes. Not to mention the cold that I picked up, with about half the bus riders coughing and hacking and then touching everything in sight.
That was the extreme test, I tried the short route to work, I work 3 miles from where I live. After having to walk 3/4 of a mile to the bus stop (in the rain), I waited and then the bus came. I got on and we headed out. I got to work 20 minutes from start to finish. In my car, it takes a good 2 to 3 depending on traffic. Sure, I could ride a bike but those that say to do so, don't live in Oregon (especially during the winter).
It's good that we're looking at alternatives, but I just hope that everything is taken into account before something is forced upon us by mandates or laws.
Wayne
Post by: Guest on March 01, 2006, 07:24:49 PM
Quote
Then you have price. The highly touted (is that a word) "Bio-Fueled Vechicles" around here spend over $3 per gallon of fuel. Now, it was supposed to be cheaper, and it is to make, but it costs more at the station. The last time I spoke with Grants, a lawn care taker company in town, they were buying bio-diesel for $3.75 a gallon. So what happened, they raised their rates, and lost about a 1/3rd of their business. Sure they got a great write up in the fish wrapper (newspaper) but that doesn't pay the bills.
Bio fuel isnt even close to being cheaper at this point. Consider that it isnt any cheaper than regular gasoline right now, and that is after we have tagged a whole bunch of tax onto that gasoline, which doesnt get applied to bio diesel. Of course it is still a cottage industry, so volume will bring down the cost. On the other hand, we are using a lot of recycled materials to make it, and that supply wouldnt hold out at all with a large demand.
Post by: mfree on March 02, 2006, 03:20:14 AM
Neat stuff, if you watch closely.
Post by: Warren on March 02, 2006, 08:33:21 AM
Post by: 280plus on March 02, 2006, 08:40:05 AM
Post by: Stand_watie on March 03, 2006, 11:09:56 PM
Quote from: Iain
Now all we've got to worry about is the estrogenising effects of soybean exhaust.
Be careful boys. The mechanic of the future may have an awesome curvy figure from behind. But I bet he is mean with a monkey wrench.
I feel emasculated just looking at the picture. Looks like rocky mountain oysters at the moment of harvest.
Be careful boys. The mechanic of the future may have an awesome curvy figure from behind. But I bet he is mean with a monkey wrench.
Post by: Stand_watie on March 04, 2006, 03:39:25 PM
Quote from: Blackburn
I want one.
You're disgusting.Oh. You meant one of the cars. Never mind.
Post by: Antibubba on March 05, 2006, 01:57:13 PM
Actually, you don't even need to convert the oil into biodiesel-diesel engines will burn straight veggie oil. The problem is making it flow easily- a preheater is usually involved.
--------
It is true that bidiesel will not be able to fully replace petro, but eventually oil will be too valuable to burn, instead going into chemicals, plastics, and soforth. There will be a need to shift over to other fuels. BDiesel, ethanol, electric, hydrogen perhaps, maybe even steam again. The important thing is to not try to make a switchover as the stuff is drying out, but beforehand. And as a preparedness-type, the simplicity of making biodiesel and ethanol appeals to me
Post by: mfree on March 06, 2006, 06:37:34 AM
IIRC butanol is 97/100 the caloric value of gasoline, only drawback is that it's got a much higher vapor temperature, you'd need direct injection or intake heaters for cold weather.
Post by: charby on March 06, 2006, 07:03:05 AM
Quote from: mfree
IIRC butanol is 97/100 the caloric value of gasoline, only drawback is that it's got a much higher vapor temperature, you'd need direct injection or intake heaters for cold weather.
So just burn it in a diesel engine?
Post by: publius on March 07, 2006, 03:41:01 PM
Quote from: USP45usp
To power every car in the US, how much land would need to be used to grow enough soybeans to make enough fuel?
How much of the land, now used for produce for consumption, as well as grazing grounds, would be needed to grow enough food for human consumption and enough soybeans for fuel?
You don't have to use soybeans, and we actually need less and less land to feed more and more people as farming advances.
How much of the land, now used for produce for consumption, as well as grazing grounds, would be needed to grow enough food for human consumption and enough soybeans for fuel?