3 ms·

Coffee-powered car breaks renewable "gasification" land speed record

20 points by mrsebastian 15y ago

zwieback 15y ago
This type of thing, much slower of course, was used in Germany during and after the war to run cars with wood. The actual furnace was often pulled on a trailer.
- mrsebastian 15y ago
  Were those not just steam-powered cars? (Quite common, once upon a time.)
  - jws 15y ago
    Apparently not, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator You can see one in an old movie clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11FB83YxoeM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11FB83YxoeM skip up to about 3:10.
    - mrsebastian 15y ago
      Ha, awesome :) Love the picture of the Saab, in the Wiki entry.
deleted 15y ago
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yock 15y ago
Quite an interesting achievement. Quite unfortunate too that coffee is loads more expensive than gasoline. The article mentions a lesser-successful experiment using wood pellets. What goes into the selection of the fuel materials? Could similar results be achieved with less finicky fuels such as corn or soybean?
to3m 15y ago
Wow, a Rover SD1 that's actually still running. I think that's much more impressive than people finally finding a good use for coffee.
derekdahmer 15y ago
If this ever took off, we'll all end up having to pay $20 for a cup of coffee because the beans are all being used to power our cars.
esdweb 15y ago
I loved this -- and don't skip the video. British ingenuity. It reminded me of Orville and Wilbur making airplanes from bicycle parts. Sadly, we don't do this kind of stuff anymore in the U.S. The other thing it reminded me of is that British reality game show in the '90s -- Robot Wars or something. I used to love to watch that. I think the huge problem is the tremendously high heat in a small footprint. It's similar to the issues of the early natural gas powered vehicles -- they are basically a terrorist's wet dream, an explosive on wheels. Mind your hands, dear. Make sure you put on your asbestos gloves before you go out for a spin. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the video.) Pictures speak a thousand words and that dragon fire plume spewing from the fender definitely gave one pause. But all that said, I think this is something worth developing. The issue is how to generate a thousand-plus degrees of heat in a very small space in a safe and green way. The last time we went about this we came up with the atomic bomb. Hmmm. They make mini-reactors for the inter-planetary satellites -- perhaps you could adapt one of those?

20 points by mrsebastian 15y ago

This type of thing, much slower of course, was used in Germany during and after the war to run cars with wood. The actual furnace was often pulled on a trailer.

mrsebastian 15y ago
Were those not just steam-powered cars? (Quite common, once upon a time.)
- jws 15y ago
  Apparently not, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator You can see one in an old movie clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11FB83YxoeM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11FB83YxoeM skip up to about 3:10.
  - mrsebastian 15y ago
    Ha, awesome :) Love the picture of the Saab, in the Wiki entry.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

yock 15y ago

Quite an interesting achievement. Quite unfortunate too that coffee is loads more expensive than gasoline. The article mentions a lesser-successful experiment using wood pellets. What goes into the selection of the fuel materials? Could similar results be achieved with less finicky fuels such as corn or soybean?

to3m 15y ago

Wow, a Rover SD1 that's actually still running. I think that's much more impressive than people finally finding a good use for coffee.

derekdahmer 15y ago

If this ever took off, we'll all end up having to pay $20 for a cup of coffee because the beans are all being used to power our cars.

esdweb 15y ago

I loved this -- and don't skip the video. British ingenuity. It reminded me of Orville and Wilbur making airplanes from bicycle parts. Sadly, we don't do this kind of stuff anymore in the U.S. The other thing it reminded me of is that British reality game show in the '90s -- Robot Wars or something. I used to love to watch that. I think the huge problem is the tremendously high heat in a small footprint. It's similar to the issues of the early natural gas powered vehicles -- they are basically a terrorist's wet dream, an explosive on wheels. Mind your hands, dear. Make sure you put on your asbestos gloves before you go out for a spin. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the video.) Pictures speak a thousand words and that dragon fire plume spewing from the fender definitely gave one pause. But all that said, I think this is something worth developing. The issue is how to generate a thousand-plus degrees of heat in a very small space in a safe and green way. The last time we went about this we came up with the atomic bomb. Hmmm. They make mini-reactors for the inter-planetary satellites -- perhaps you could adapt one of those?