Car Made In Missouri gets 358 Miles to the Gallon.....

[MMC]

KYTV (http://www.ky3.com/news/ky3-aurora-junior-highbuilt-super-car-gets-358-miles-per-gallon-20120419,0,6785381.story) in Springfield, Mo., reports a car designed by students at Aurora Junior High School gets 358 miles per gallon. The red roadster seats one, has three small bicycle wheels and starts with a pull cord. The steering column is similar to a bicycle's to turn the two front wheels. The car was designed as part of the Missouri SuperMileage Challenge.

* The car was not allowed to go over 30 mph per contest rules (http://www.missourisupermileage.org/Documents/SEVENTH%20ANNUAL%20MISSOURI%20rules%202012.pdf). The vehicle must also be able to make a turn within 35 feet of turning radius.
* The engine must be a 4-cycle engine made from the factory of a brand name such as Honda or Briggs & Stratton. Basically, the engines are from lawnmowers or even gas-powered trimmers.
* Unleaded fuel must power the lightweight vehicles. The engine can max out at six horsepower.
* For the 2012 contest, there were two divisions. The first was the stock division with unaltered factory engines. The second was the experimental division in which engines burn ethanol or blended fuels.

* This was the fourth year in a row a team from Aurora won the event. In 2011, the Aurora Advertiser (http://www.auroraadvertiser.net/news/x1836098467/Aurora-team-takes-top-seed-in-fuel-efficiency-at-car-contest) reported the SuperMileage students from Aurora High School won the experimental division using B20 biodiesel to get 275 miles per gallon. The junior high team placed second out of 14 cars in 2011 in the stock division with 158 miles per gallon.

http://news.yahoo.com/car-made-missouri-gets-358-miles-per-gallon-203400907.html

Anyone familiar with the SAE International? I tried to find some pics of this car too. If I find any I will post one up. When I first saw the piece I thought it was some type of car that was using Alochol based fuels. Here are the future designers of some cars. Unbelievable that they have won 4 times. Junior High School and even the high school has won this event. All students. Do you think this kinda makes our big Automakers look bad?

[Conley]

What's the SAE international? Is that the solar car competitions?

Yep, these kinds of things do make the car makers look bad. Ever see Who Killed the Electric Car?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJAlrYjGz8

[MMC]

I thought it was Henry Ford himself. Wasn't Tesla working with the idea of an electric car?

[Conley]

There's a rumor of that, yes...also the current day Tesla company makes electrics.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/2012_year_of_model_s_0.jpg

[MMC]

Yeah I knew that. They say the kid's car was a one seat roadster painted red. I still havent found any pics of it. Found the school tho. In the video they say it was GM. Maybe more recently. But they had an episode on the history channel that was showing the Electric car going back before Ford even had the first Model T built.

[wingrider]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/delasalle-school-electric-car/











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Students Build World’s Most Efficient Car

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2010/08/DeLaSalle_electric_car.jpg

[wingrider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwVVdMmAjds

[wingrider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45pjOYFEO3k

[MMC]

Those are cool WR. Plus these kids basically used lawnmowers and gas trimmers. I think theirs was based on fuel.

[Conley]

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/08/delasalle-school-electric-car/

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Students Build World’s Most Efficient Car


http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2010/08/DeLaSalle_electric_car.jpg


That is sweet looking.

[wingrider]

check out some of the videos at the end of the one I posted from youtube.. pretty cool

[waltky]

Biodiesel made from microalgae...
http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/images/smilies/confused.gif
Chilean Scientists Produce Biodiesel From Microalgae
June 30, 2017 — Biodiesel made from microalgae could power buses and trucks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent, Chilean scientists said, possibly curbing pollution in contaminated cities like Santiago.


Experts from the department of Chemical Engineering and Bioprocesses at Chile's Catholic University said they had grown enough algae to fragment it and extract the oil which, after removing moisture and debris, can be converted into biofuel. "What is new about our process is the intent to produce this fuel from microalgae, which are microorganisms," researcher Carlos Saez told Reuters.


https://gdb.voanews.com/6AF03D05-189F-4633-B25A-D291FDE40260_w650_r0_s.jpg
Biochemist Cesar Saez (L) does a test on the engine of a car with a biofuel made with microalgae for high displacement diesel engines for reducing emissions of gases and particulate matter in Santiago, Chile

Most of the world's biodiesel, which reduces dependence on petroleum, is derived from soybean oil. It can also be made from animal fat, canola or palm oil.

Saez said a main challenge going forward would be to produce a sufficient volume of microalgae. A wide variety of fresh and salt water algaes are found in Chile, a South American nation with a long Pacific coast. The scientists are trying to improve algae growing technology to ramp up production at a low cost using limited energy, Saez said.

https://www.voanews.com/a/chilean-scientists-produce-biofeul-from-microalgae-/3923667.html

See also:

Scientists: Clean Fuel From 'Bionic Leaf' Could Ease Pressure on Farmland
June 02, 2016 — A new clean technology to turn sunlight into liquid fuel could drastically shrink the need for large plantations to grow crops for biofuels, while combating climate change, Harvard University researchers said on Thursday.


That could help protect food supplies and local people's land rights, they suggested. Dubbed "bionic leaf 2.0," the technology uses solar panels to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen, the scientists said in a study published in the journal Science. Once separated, hydrogen is moved into a chamber where it is consumed by bacteria, and with help from a special metal catalyst and carbon dioxide, the process generates liquid fuel.

The method is an artificial version of the photosynthesis process plants use to make energy from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, scientists said. If it becomes economically viable, the technology could replace oil wells or plantations where food crops are grown for fuel, the study's lead author said. "This [new energy source] is not competing with food for agricultural land," Harvard University Professor of Energy Daniel Nocera told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Crops for fuel, rather than food

Crops such as corn and sugar cane have been increasingly cultivated to produce biofuels. About 4 percent of the world's farmland is used to grow crops for fuel rather than food, according to a University of Virginia study published in March. Tens of thousands of small-scale farmers across Africa, Asia and Latin America have been displaced by plantations growing crops to make biofuels, according to GRAIN, a Barcelona-based land rights group. The new technology could help protect their land rights while also reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, Nocera said. "The [land] footprint these solar panels need is about one-tenth the size of what you would need for sugar cane," he said.

If governments put a price on carbon-dioxide emissions, the "bionic leaf" would appeal to investors as a cost-effective alternative energy source, the professor added. Today, however, it remains cheaper to grow biofuel crops or extract fossil fuels than to produce renewable energy, Nocera said. A carbon tax boosting U.S. gas prices to European levels -- although not yet on the cards -- would likely be enough to spur investment in the new technology, he said. "Bionic leaf 2.0" converts solar energy into liquid fuel with 10 percent efficiency, far higher than the 1 percent efficiency seen in the fastest-growing plants that use a similar process, Nocera added.

https://www.voanews.com/a/bionic-leaf-clean-fuel-farmland/3359989.html