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US man modifies pickup to run on wood, waste
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 27 - 06 - 2009


From the first time he saw
Emmett «Doc» Brown fire up the Mr. Fusion home energy
reactor in the «Back to the Future» movies, Dave Nichols
has always wanted to make a vehicle run on garbage, AP reported.
Two decades after the trilogy, the 42-year-old home
builder and auto shop owner isn't traveling through time in
a DeLorean, yet. But he's modified his 1989 Ford F150
pickup truck to run on wood, leaves, cardboard and other
«biomass» with a fuel system that he says expels
virtually no pollution.
The technology is called gasification, and it's been
around since the 1800s, when it was used for street lamps
and cooking. It even powered some vehicles during World War
II, but faded away under oil's dominance.
Nichols and others say reviving gasification, which can
also heat and power homes, has exciting possibilities, from
reducing dependence on foreign oil to cutting pollution.
«It's a simple science from 130 years ago that can be
used today to solve all of our problems ... and it runs on
potentially free fuel,» Nichols said. «This type of
technology has to be developed, and it has to be developed
now.»
Gasification projects have been sprouting up across the
country. Others have also built car gasification systems,
including a team in California that has a video on YouTube
showing its modified Honda Accord.
Middlebury College in Vermont fired up its biomass heating
and power plant last December.
The new interest in gasification comes as President Barack
Obama presses to double the nation's use of renewable
energy over the next three years, with $15 billion a year
to be spent to develop solar power, wind power, advanced
biofuels, fuel-efficient cars and other technologies.
Gasification works by heating organic materials to high
temperatures without flames. The resulting chemical
reactions produce a hydrogen-hydrocarbon gas mixture in
vapor form that is almost as potent as gasoline, Nichols
said.
His pickup truck appears to run like any other and easily
reached 40 mph and above on local roads on a recent day,
but it has no gas tanks. Nichols says he can get it up to
more than 80 mph. The only noticeable difference is a
contraption, right behind the cab's rear window, that takes
up some of the back and looks somewhat like a wood stove.
A metal barrel, where the heating occurs, extends just
above the cab's roof. The gas is captured from the barrel
and a vacuum system sucks it through piping that runs under
the truck to the engine.
Nichols says he's driven it 10,000 miles (16,0000
kilometers) without gas, including a trip about three
months ago when he loaded up the back with about 400 pounds
(180 kilograms) of wood and drove some 600 miles (960
kilometers). A 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of wood or other
material will fuel his truck for 1 to 2 miles (1.6-3.2
kilometers), meaning that the truck costs about 8 cents a 1
mile (1.6 kilometers) to fuel, compared to roughly 19 cents
per mile (1.6 kilometers) if it used gasoline at today's
prices.
«This is real. This is no game,» said Nichols, who lives
in town with his wife and two daughters, ages 15 and 11.
«The mechanics at the garage thought I was crazy. They're
not laughing anymore.»
He started the project about seven years ago, after
reading an instruction book about lamp gas technology in
the 1800s.
Nichols has been trying to perfect the system ever since,
with a few stumbles along the way, and says he's close. One
of the final parts is an electronic system that would allow
drivers to push a button, instead of having to start it
with a propane torch like Nichols does now. He's applied
for a federal grant to help with the electronic system and
other improvements.
Nichols, a thin, mustachioed man whose hands are very
active when he talks, had the «reactor» filled with
slicked log pieces about 5 inches (13 centimeters) in
diameter and 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 centimeters) thick.
That's where the gasification starts.
The organic materials in the reactor are exposed to
extreme heat, which breaks them down into vapor gases. Then
a startup vacuum system (using an old wet-and-dry shop vac)
is turned on to get the gases flowing to the engine.
The temperature inside the reactor reaches over 2,000
degrees (1,093 Celsius), but the gas cools to about 150
degrees (66 Celsius) about 5 feet (1.52 meters) from the
reactor. Passengers in the pickup's cab don't feel the
warmth.
Gases are drawn from the reactor by the vacuum at first,
and later the engine itself. The gases are pulled through
pipes and filters to cool and clean them, and they end up
at about air temperature when they reach the engine's air
intake. The startup process takes a few minutes.
Nichols says the hydrogen-hydrocarbon gas mixture is then
mixed with air in the intake manifold, then goes into the
cylinders just like gasoline and is ignited to power the
engine. He says the only thing he did to the engine was
take off the air filter and hook up the gasification system
to the air intake valves.
«It's a complicated version of easy,» Nichols said.
The end products of the process are a little bit of ash,
carbon dioxide and water, he said. He also claims there's
little or no carbon footprint.
Nichols has started a company, 21st Century Motor Works,
to work on and market gasification systems, but doesn't
have a patent yet.
Larry Baxter, a chemical engineering professor at Brigham
Young University in Utah, said gasification for vehicles is
a scientifically proven process, but it has several
drawbacks that have prevented commercial success.
One of those problems, he said, is that the process
typically produces particles and other materials that can
damage engines. Another is that people would have to be
loading up their cars and trucks with wood or other
materials, making it impractical. And, he says, the
technology is really not much better for the environment.
«It's fantastic people are doing these kinds of things,
but they'll never be more than a niche or novelty,» Baxter
said. «It's a scientifically sound but practically
difficult process. It would be wrong to think of these as
efficient or practical.»
Nichols disagrees, saying he's found a way to produce a
clean-burning fuel. He says the technology could save
people thousands of dollars a year in gasoline, electricity
and heating costs.
«This could be Obama's ultimate stimulus package,» he
said.
Nichols said he eventually wants to patent his reactor
core, but his focus right now is educating the public and
getting a product out on the market.
He also wants to build a smaller version of the vehicle
fueling system, so it could be more practical for cars.
«Now if I could get a hold of a DeLorean,» Nichols said.


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