A Tree Powered Truck

[420inTN]

Keith, 57, lives on a quiet farm within sight of the St. Clair Correctional Facility outside Springville. His land is home to a cattle and hay farm, and he runs his log house on electricity from a windmill. Whatever wood he needs is provided by his sawmill.

<snip>

Last Christmas, he took a 1984 diesel truck and replaced its motor with a 1968 hot-rod engine with more horsepower. He then devised a wood-burning system with cooling and filtering units attached at the hood and in the pickup bed.

Keith estimates he has driven 4,000 miles since he converted the truck. The engine, which runs on hydrogen generated by burning the wood, is clean enough that Keith proudly shows off the spark plugs to the curious.

<snip>

He keeps a 30-gallon trash can in the bed, filled with wood pieces that have already been burned to remove water. Keith fills a 6-foot reactor in the truck bed with wood, then starts up the engine. It still takes some gas to get the truck going, but within two minutes, the only fuel is wood. He also uses gas for a little extra power when he pulls his trailer. If not for the reactor, which causes wind drag, he estimates he could reach speeds over 100 mph.

more, full story here

[jojo54]

1. WOW!

That's great that this guy has found an alternative fuel, something that this administration doesn't want to acknowledge. The down side to this is, shrub will get to make more money from his logging company that he denied owning.

[jeff30997]

2. That's amazing !

[MadHound]

3. Sounds interesting, I'd like to investigate it more thoroughly though

This could be a viable alternative, but it sounds like it would have to be "dumbed down" a bit in order for the general public to opt for it.

[420inTN]

4. It's not a viable alternative for mass production

Unless you want to see the United States completely deforrested.

Also, while burning the wood does release the same amount of CO2 as natural decay, by burning the wood the carbon oxides are released at a greatly accelerated (nearly instant) rate. This will still increase atmospheric greenhouse gasses since the gasses will increment faster than they can be re-absorbed.

[MadHound]

7. Yeah, I was kinda thinking that myself

Twenty pounds of wood for every 15-30 miles does seem a bit excessive. That's about the equivalent of a couple of good stout logs. And I would like to get an exhaust analysis done for the reasons you mentioned.

Still, it does sound interesting in a Rube Goldberg kind of way.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Bookmarking, Nominating...

...and :kick: of course.

[htuttle]

6. A car that runs on wood?

Gosh, wonder why nobody thought of that before?

Oh, there's this:

Stanley Steamer
Holder of the world land speed record of 127 mph in 1906.
http://www.stanleysteamer.com

BTW, regarding fuel sources, Americans each generate about 5 pounds of 'waste' per day. Almost four pounds of it is organic waste and paper. That's about 48,000 BTUs per day, just slightly less than 1/2 gallon of gasoline (times the number of members of your household).

[lectrobyte]

9. I think Germany used the same system in WW2. It takes a lot of

wood. Yep. http://patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog/2004/10/a_car_that_runs.html

[420inTN]

15. Yes, the story in the original post ...

said that the WW2 engine was the inspiration for this device.

[lectrobyte]

22. Yeah, I should'a read the linked article first, thanks... nt

[meisje]

8. Imagine the smog from millions of wood burning cars and trucks

[wideopen]

10. there is an interesting alternative engine

thats been around since early 1800's called the stirling engine. It runs on any fuel that will produce heat. I don't know how to do links or I would but just google "stirling engine".

[Roland99]

11. Just put the URL in your Message

http://travel.howstuffworks.com/stirling-engine.htm

[wideopen]

13. Thanks Roland,

I'm here in Lou. w/you. I didn't realize it did that automatically.

[Roland99]

14. Hey there! Seems to be several of us active from Derby Town up here

:D

[wideopen]

18. I think your the only other one I know of

but I'm sure I'll run into others at some point.

[htuttle]

12. Where a Stirling would really shine is driving a generator in a hybrid

Stirlings like to run at the same speed, and don't like to stop or start instantly. However, that would be fine if you were generating electricity with it.

GM was going to use a Stirling engine to drive a generator for it's HEV vehicle. They've since switched to a H2 fuel-cell. Their reasoning for switching to H2 fuel cells was undoubtely more economic/political than technological, if you ask me.

[wideopen]

16. Most of what I read

about the stirling a while back was in relation to boat motors because of the quietness and abundance of cooling water. It seems that such a simple, efficent engine could be used for some everyday purpose even if it's not a vehicle.

[htuttle]

19. They use them in Swedish submarines nowdays

http://www.kockums.se/Submarines/aipstirling.html

[wideopen]

21. Cool!!

Wish we would wise up over here. There are so many unutilized ideas and designs that could solve our energy problems it's sickening to see them suppressed so we will continue to buy oil.

[420inTN]

17. I've known about the stirling engine...

for a couple of years. When I first saw this story, I wondered if someone was using a stirling engine. Obviously not. ;-)

[wideopen]

20. It sure does seem a lot eaisier

than the wood burner this guys got, butI admire his innovative spirit.