100 mile per gallon of biodiesel: Neil Young's Lincoln Continental

[mhatrw]

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah.html

Motorhead Messiah

Johnathan Goodwin can get 100 mpg out of a Lincoln Continental, cut emissions by 80%, and double the horsepower. Does the car business have the guts to follow him? ...

This is the sort of work that's making Goodwin famous in the world of underground car modders. He is a virtuoso of fuel economy. He takes the hugest American cars on the road and rejiggers them to get up to quadruple their normal mileage and burn low-emission renewable fuels grown on U.S. soil--all while doubling their horsepower. The result thrills eco-evangelists and red-meat Americans alike: a vehicle that's simultaneously green and mean. And word's getting out. In the corner of his office sits Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 Jeep Wagoneer, which Goodwin is converting to biodiesel; soon, Neil Young will be shipping him a 1960 Lincoln Continental to transform into a biodiesel--electric hybrid. His target for Young's car? One hundred miles per gallon. ...

But Goodwin wanted more. While researching alternative fuels, he learned about the work of Uli Kruger, a German who has spent decades in Australia exploring techniques for blending fuels that normally don't mix. One of Kruger's systems induces hydrogen into the air intake of a diesel engine, producing a cascade of emissions-reducing and mileage-boosting effects. The hydrogen, ignited by the diesel combustion, burns extremely clean, producing only water as a by-product. It also displaces up to 50% of the diesel needed to fuel the car, effectively doubling the diesel's mileage and cutting emissions by at least half. Better yet, the water produced from the hydrogen combustion cools down the engine, so the diesel combustion generates fewer particulates--and thus fewer nitrogen-oxide emissions. ... "It's really a fantastic chain reaction, all these good things happening at once," Kruger tells me. ...

For his part, Goodwin argues he's merely "a problem solver. Most people try to make things more complicated than they are." He speaks of the major carmakers with a sort of mild disdain: If he can piece together cleaner vehicles out of existing GM parts and a bit of hot-rod elbow grease, why can't they bake that kind of ingenuity into their production lines? Prod him enough on the subject and his mellowness peels away, revealing a guy fired by an almost manic frustration. "Everybody should be driving a plug-in vehicle right now," he complains, in one of his laconic engineering lectures, as we wander through the blistering Kansas heat to a nearby Mexican restaurant. "I can go next door to Ace Hardware and buy a DC electric motor, go out to my four-wheel-drive truck, remove the transmission and engine, bolt the electric motor onto the back of the transfer case, put a series of lead-acid batteries up to 240 volts in the back of the bed, and we're good to go. I guarantee you I could drive all around town and do whatever I need, go home at night, and hook up a couple of battery chargers, plug one into an outlet, and be good to go the next day. "Detroit could do all this stuff overnight if it wanted to," he adds.

[acmavm]

1. I think this is great. The only thing I worry about are the organizations

that deal with the world's poor that say that using grain for energy takes away grain for the poorest in the world. That either the price is too high or there's a shortage (considering how much the world really needs) to provide relief to those who are really going hungry.

This guy is right on one thing. The auto companies could do a lot more to solve this problem.

[TheWraith]

14. Production of food isn't the problem.

In truth, we produce a lot more food than we eat, both here and globally. The problem is distribution, and inefficiency. In India, rats eat something like 20% of all their grain crop every year. Probably the same in China. This planet isn't crowded--it's mismanaged. (If we were bright, we'd be mass-shipping our homeless cats from shelters over here to be let loose in places where vermin run rampant.)

So fuel from food isn't really as big a problem as some people make it. In any event, I think biodiesel will end up being a legacy solution. Pure-electric vehicles are a lot more efficient, and there's less on the front end to keep them fueled.

As for the auto companies, it's a simple equation. Corporations are lazy, and the people who run them only care about how the bottom line is affected for the next fiscal quarter. That's one of the reasons the Japanese got where they are--they have a long-term view of investment and technology. But most US corporations can't be bothered to front the money to experiment in other things so long as what they have right now is still profitable.

[smoogatz]

19. Plus, rat is delicious.

Deep fried, they're a crunchity, munchity treat!

[Esra Star]

2. Innovation like this will break out all over the place as fuel prices rise.

The obsession with horsepower is a sickness that goes down another toilet entirely.
When establishments that use "cooking oil" get their act together, they will sell their
alternate fuel at the market rate. This means that there will be no savings in that area.
I have never purchased a jet turbine, how much are they?

[mhatrw]

5. Why all the damn pessimism about something good?

"Everybody should be driving a plug-in vehicle right now," he complains, in one of his laconic engineering lectures, as we wander through the blistering Kansas heat to a nearby Mexican restaurant. "I can go next door to Ace Hardware and buy a DC electric motor, go out to my four-wheel-drive truck, remove the transmission and engine, bolt the electric motor onto the back of the transfer case, put a series of lead-acid batteries up to 240 volts in the back of the bed, and we're good to go. I guarantee you I could drive all around town and do whatever I need, go home at night, and hook up a couple of battery chargers, plug one into an outlet, and be good to go the next day.

Do you agree or disagree?

[Esra Star]

8. If you're asking me if it's possible to get a DC motor, connect it

some batteries and make it drive a vehicle, then yes, that has been done.
What's the point to your question?
Cheers.

[mhatrw]

11. Why all the damn pessimism about something good? n/t

[Esra Star]

13. I am not at all pessimistic about the good things that are happening.

I am just saying it is a shame that the infantile need for horsepower
is still so prevalent.

[TheWraith]

16. How about the infantile need to criticize things as being below ones self?

You act like anybody who's not deliberately minimizing the capabilities of their vehicle is some kind of raging egomaniac. Hate to break it to you, but most of the new technologies for cleaner cars also include far greater performance as a side-effect.

[Esra Star]

17. I think it is unfortunate that some people substitute a big car for their

own feelings of inadequacy.
This is a common disease and it will take time to remedy.

[TheWraith]

18. Actually, "big car" and "lots of horsepower" don't always go together.

As for inadequacy, people will always find a way to puff themselves up, unless you think we should ban large salaries, big houses, and other fripperies.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. So what's the point?

He's getting 100 mpg by burning hydrogen and less diesel. I don't see how that's an improvement.

[mhatrw]

4. Let's see. 1) He's still burning 50% deisel so it's a huge improvement w/o the hydrogen.

2) He's doubling/tripling the horsepower at the same time.

3) Burning hydrogen is cleaner than burning diesel. Burning diesel is cleaner than burning hydrogen.

4) Hydrogen cools the engine resulting in a cleaner diesel burn for the diesel that is burned.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. So?

He's still burning hydrogen.

Why not just use hydrogen fuel cells? Infinite miles per gallon of diesel.

[mhatrw]

9. Great idea. What is the cost of a fuel cell designed car versus just taking

any car body, slipping in a diesel engine and introducing some hydrogen into the diesel fuel. One guy can make this modification by himself in a few days' time. This is a wonderful, affordable incremental step. Why should we all have to wait until fuel cells achieve a modicum of efficiency when we can make this step today?

[TheWraith]

15. To say that the vehicle is "burning" hydrogen is a bit deceptive.

It implies that this results in the same sort of things as other internal combustion fuels. The only byproduct of hydrogen combustion is dihydrogen monoxide--water vapor.

[Javaman]

7. Wasn't there a Hummer post like this one as well? nt

[mhatrw]

10. Yes, but it seems that the idea of any hummer not being evil incarnate is

strongly upsetting to many here, so I changed my tack.

[Javaman]

12. I think I will post something like "hummers rule!" and just let the darts fly. LOL nt

[smoogatz]

20. We knew way back in the '70s that Detroit and Big Oil were in cahoots.

Cheap gas and big, high-profit cars were always the bargain. Except now (and in the 70s), Big Oil's greed is threatening to tip the apple-cart.

If GM or Ford had any sense they'd hire this guy and make him VP in charge of product innovation: but they won't. They don't give a good god damn about innovation; it's all about squeezing the maximum profit from every car they sell. Exactly the opposite of Henry Ford's original business model.

[dweller]

21. ...

:kick:

dp

[Solar_Power]

22. Google's plug-in Prius gets 100MPG

http://www.google.org/recharge/

[TheWraith]

23. Maybe, maybe not.

The "mile per gallon" numbers some people throw around for plug-in hybrids are dubious at best. They tend to overstate the actual fuel economy. I don't know if Google is doing this, but it happens when you say that the vehicle can go, say, 70 miles on a single gallon of gas. That sounds impressive, but what it doesn't mention is that it does the first 30 miles or so entirely on battery power, after which its mileage is no better than an ordinary hybrid. So it's a sliding scale--short trips would mean no fuel burned at all, but a 1000 mile road trip would use only slightly less gas than an unmodified vehicle.

I don't know if Google is overstating this way, but it's possible.