See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: Car Engine Design Breakthrough Reported on CBS News
Source:
WantToKnow.info
URL Source: http://www.wanttoknow.info/060303carenginebreakthrough
Published: Mar 3, 2006
Author: Fred Burks
Post Date: 2006-03-03 08:31:47 by Grumble Jones
Keywords: Breakthrough, Reported, Engine
Views: 190
Comments: 42
The CBS news article below reveals a major breakthrough in car engine design. This car engine gets over 50 mpg, goes from zero to 60 in four seconds, and runs on soybean oil! So why isn't this remarkable breakthrough making front page headlines in all major media? For the same reason that many other major energy breakthroughs have been reported but never given the headlines they deserve. Those who are reaping huge profits from oil sales have much more political and media influence than you might imagine. Under the short, but revealing CBS article below, I've included links to several other major energy breakthroughs reported in the mainstream media which should be getting major attention. I invite you to explore these fascinating articles to see if these aren't legitimate inventions that should transform car engines and energy production. You can make a difference now by playing the role at which the media is so sadly failing. Spread the news on these amazing breakthroughs far and wide. Together, we can and will build a brighter future. With best wishes, Fred Burks for the Team Former language interpreter for Presidents Bush and Clinton http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/17/eveningnews/main1329941.shtml Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood. But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades [for] comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot. A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School. The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop Poster Comment: There's a lot on the site.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Grumble Jones (#0)
Unfortunately, until there is a fuel distribution system (this is the major problem with converting fuels) --- this is cool but unusable out in the real world :(
Henry Ford built a car entirely out of Hemp. Even the body was made from Hemp and ran from Hemp oil. Plastic made from hemp are superior to plastic made from manmade chemicals (which is the reason it was outlawed to protect Dupont and Dow) Unlike the carcinogenic chemicals used to made current plastics, plastics made from hemp have about a 100 year life span before they disintegrate and NATURALLY return to basic compounds; meaning that garbage dumps will not be burdened with plastics for hundred of years to come. Legal restrictions on Hemp and marijuana must removed.
In speaking of the Truth, Henry David Thoreau once said: "Any Truth is better than make-believe ... rather than love, than money, than fame, give me Truth."
Indeed...it's something like 10 times stronger than petroleum bases plastics. peanut oil will make strong plastic too. Hemp can also be harvested every 90 days (or something like that).
ping!
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." ~Plato
Your conclusion wreaks of GOP indoctrination and i object to your cavilier dismissal of converting fuels, problems to overcome notwithstanding!
Where can one can get a fillup of Soybean oil at 2am? Where can one buy one of these cars? That is the problem currently. What is YOUR solution?
forward ping
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
Detroit News/WantToKnow.info, June 4, 2004 Ford's Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16 miles per gallon. But we weren't importing oil back then, those cars were running on good American gasoline! Enough of that, I feel all sicky now.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
You like all this motor car talk if memory serves... Can you help me patend some brake shoes I made out of an old bowling ball?
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
What else could it be but a deisel engine? They are just running it on vegtable oil. The very first deisel was run on the same thing. Distribution? There is deisel everywhere. Bio deisel fuels are nothing new. Folks are running them on filtered waste fryer oil. Smells like a cookout behind one.
And leave it to the "incompetent fools in government" like Dubya to screw this up. What oil company is weak right now, we'll blame them.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
energy/natural resources ping
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
Richard, would you mind pinging your ping list here?
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
I want my diesels to run on hempseed oil.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
That is the problem currently. What is YOUR solution? You're right. The current lack of 2 am availability of soybean fuel is an excellent indicator that there is no way to market this product in the foreseable future. I think you are right, we should just give up and accept the status quo (not).
Well, then, what's the solution? Here's a cool idea that is simply not currently viable in the marketplace. Find a solution, don't just complain!
Ford's Model T, which went 25 miles on a gallon of gasoline, was more fuel efficient than the current Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicle -- which manages just 16 miles per gallon. Hilarious!
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." ~Plato
Model T had a top speed of 35 mph, how many of those you suppose they'd sell today?
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
Find a solution, don't just complain! Mirage, i have an idea for you. Instead of complaining that a great idea is not "currently viable in the marketplace" why don't you come up with a solution instead of just complaining about it? That's all i have to say to you until you start singing a can-do song.
I'll bet repairs were inexpensive. Better than a moped!
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." ~Plato
Sure, just take it to a blacksmith, if you can find one. :)
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
I envisioned a flat-4 boxer engine mounted behind a front transaxle years before Subaru began producing cars with that layout, my dad said it was a goofy idea, but I thought low/inboard center of gravity couple with long hood styling would be a sales leader in the sport/economy market.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
This "NEW" story, and thousands of it's illegitimate cousins, has been around for 50 years, and, is just as much bullshit now as it was then. These myths of the 300 mpg carburetor being taken off the market by Standard Oil, perpetual motion gyroscopes, and all the other voodoo crap appeal to people that don't understand proven physics, yet these same folks place great faith in UFOs, spoon bending magicians, pyramid power, spirits from the past, and crystals. It is nothing other than a very sad example of just how uneducated and superstitious the population is.
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector." ~Plato
Completely off topic, but how can I move to Venice, Italy? I could help all sorts of businesses with business stuff, am I a commodity yet?
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
Who would hang a name like this on their kid? Oh, I suppose the Philly location tells all. ;0)
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Nonsense. The distribution system could handle soybean oil quite easily. It could even handle butanol, a four carbon alcohol fuel which is better suited to mix with gasoline or diesel (and could even be used 100%) than is ethanol. Ethanol, BTW, is the alternative fuel that is incompatible with current distribution systems. Butanol can be shipped in existing pipelines while ethanol cannot. Soybean oil isn't any different than other types of oils and if mixed with butanol would work in almost any engine by thinning it and preventing it from gumming up the works.
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Matter of fact, soybean oil should be removed from the food supply and used for fuel instead. It would be better for all concerned, for health and environmental reasons.
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
That or segregate food into male and female supplies like the vitamin aisle.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
Buy a gondola point yourself east and start rowing, hard.
That's completely out of the question.
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military. - William S Burroughs
Good for you. Keep those great ideas coming but for goodness sake find a way to get credit for them. BTW, don't be discouraged by the little-brain, little-faith people who always claim every great new idea is goofy, no offense intended aimed at your dad.
Invent a car that runs on dirty dishwater. That will make enough for you to buy an Italian catfish farm.
These myths of the 300 mpg carburetor being taken off the market by Standard Oil, perpetual motion gyroscopes, and all the other voodoo crap appeal to people that don't understand proven physics, yet these same folks place great faith in UFOs, spoon bending magicians, pyramid power, spirits from the past, and crystals. So, I guess the Dodge Ram our Sacramento area Geologist drives that gets 27 mpg (now, in a fullsize) on soon to be variable diesel to waste grease or SVO is a fantasy too? Dude, 50mpg is nothing for an oil burner on the smaller size range, the Passat gets over 40, and me and my grandfather got 93 on a non stop roadtrip with the cruise on 60 mph in his Rabbit back around 1982...
Government blows, and that which governs least blows least...
If you install extra tanks at the filling station, it would handle things quite easily. But how do you get them installed? But let me throw one more problem with you - how do you grow soybeans without using natural gas and oil as inputs? Fertilizers are made from those. This isn't an easy problem to solve. Each time you think you have a winner, you peel the layer back and locate another loser.
Been there, done that. Its called the Electric Motorcycle. There will be one out in production this year. Also, its quite easy to take a bicycle and put a motor on it, which I've done. What have you tried?
You obviousaly didn't read the article very critically, nor did you understand what I was saying in my post. The breathless conclusion of the "NEWS" was about a car that got 50+ mpg and was able to accelerate from zero mph to 60mph in 4 seconds. Here is a sample of cars that accelerate at that rate. According to Car and Driver Magazine road tests. 1) Corvette Z51 4.1 seconds 2) Dodge Viper SRT10 3.8 seconds 3) Ferrari F430 4.1 seconds 4) Porsche 911 Turbo 4.0 seconds Let me give you some hints. 1) None of these automobiles get 50+ mpg. 2) None of these automobiles are diesels. 3) None of these automobiles are affordable. The simple facts are that you can have an automobile that gets 50+mpg, and, you can have an automoile that accelerates from 0 to 60mph in 4 seconds. But in order to have that you will need to have 2 very different different automobiles. As far as you and your grandfather getting 93 mpg, I can only assume you were either decending from Mt. Everest, or your calculator's battery went dead.
There's plenty of things that get good mileage but suck when you mash the gas, my former 70 1/2 RS Camaro and 84 Trans AM for a couple. BTW, you could package a diesel to do those 0-60 times, the horsepower to weight ratio and the gearing is 95% of the issue... As for the 93 comment. I filled the car to the absolute brim, and did the same at trip end and am fairly fluent on what passed for math back then. Whether or not you want to believe it piques my ire not one bit...
Government blows, and that which governs least blows least...
This isn't an easy problem to solve. Each time you think you have a winner, you peel the layer back and locate another loser. This gets back to the problem of reforming the system of chemical agriculture. The only reason it is a loser is if we refuse to change a losing system. The way it needs to change is to get the soil healthy again. This is called biodynamics and eco-agriculture. http://acresusa.com This revolves around building up the soil and its humus and beneficial microbiology. Have you ever heard of Fusarium? This is a bacteria which has a beneficial effect to help with the nutrional needs of plants. It is not the only beneficial bacteria. There is a malady which affects plants known as Fusarium wilt which is what happens when the soil systems become out of balance and allow this bacteria to become detrimental rather than beneficial. If the soil was properly managed to be healthy this problem would not exist. Part of the problem is the overuse of chemical fertilizers and the decrease of humus content which occurs from the use of chemical nitrogen fertilizers. Excessive amounts of phosphates in the soils is also a big problem. These are bound up and not released for the use of the plants because of the imbalances. Furthermore, when the soil systems are in balance it leads to disease and insect resistant plants. From there you get healthy and nutritious foods for animals and humans. We need to dispel this utter ignorance that people suffer from with the oil- based chemical paradigm. We need to change it for our health and for the health of the planet. It's that simple.
The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic State itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism -- ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Absolutely - and before it gets too expensive to use - and its too late to do the switch. Researching all of this stuff has proven fascinating. Every single system and process appears to revolve around petroleum. Every time an answer seems to be found, more problems pop up. One thing is for sure - there will be a LOT more nuclear power in the future.
Soybeans take water and fertilizer and tractors and harvesters and trucks. Oils , a tiny percentage of the seed is oil, it must be crushed, extracted, transported several times and used in a special diesel type engine. If you burn this, what are you going to eat? Besides I doubt you can grow enough soybeans to get the oil to power the cars for Texas alone for a month. Nuclear, coal, alternate sources of petro (e.g. oil sandfs and oil shale) are the choices for the next 50 years and maybe longer. One interesting note; to double the amount of a crop on a given amount of land requires 10 times the energy you are putting into the original crop. Anyone want to calculate how many times you will double crops LOL !
Yep, that's what I'm getting from my research. Pull the NatGas and Petroleum-based fertilizers and crop yields drop 75% and we go back to the 19th Century in terms of yield. Not good. Oil sands and shale are sources, but the technology to crack them is "not really there" as of yet and is horribly energy-intensive. Current costs are (as I recall) around $30/bbl to crack bitumen in tar sands. I don't know about shale, but one would have to assume it is at least equivalent, if not higher given that the tar sands seem to be the source of choice. Currently, about 155,000bbl/day of bitumen-based oil is coming out of Canada. That isn't much. We shall see if the yields are able to be increased. We also know that to get Alberta's tar sands into "full production" and get serious oil flowing from there, something like 75% of Canada's NatGas output would be required for electricity generation. Doh! The only *currently viable* solution seems to be nuclear for electricity to crack everything and finding some alternative to to the NatGas and Petroleum inputs for fertilizer. Solar is a no-op as there just aren't enough panels available and they are not being produced in sufficient quantities to bother with. None of this is completely insurmountable, one wouldn't think, but is a serious challenge nonetheless. We'll just have to wait and see what happens and hope there are enough technology breakthroughs to make sands and shale a viable source of oil.
#2. To: Grumble Jones (#0)
#3. To: JRadcliffe (#2)
Plastic made from hemp are superior to plastic made from manmade chemicals (which is the reason it was outlawed to protect Dupont and Dow
#4. To: Dakmar, lodwick (#0)
#5. To: mirage (#1)
Unfortunately, until there is a fuel distribution system (this is the major problem with converting fuels) --- this is cool but unusable out in the real world :(
#6. To: fatidic (#5)
Your conclusion wreaks of GOP indoctrination and i object to your cavilier dismissal of converting fuels, problems to overcome notwithstanding!
#7. To: robin, Axenolith (#4)
#8. To: robin (#0)
1908 Ford Model T: 25 MPG, 2004 EPA Average All Cars: 21 MPG
http://www.WantToKnow.info/050711carmileageaveragempg
#9. To: Esso (#8)
#10. To: mirage (#1)
Unfortunately, until there is a fuel distribution system (this is the major problem with converting fuels) --- this is cool but unusable out in the real world :(
#11. To: mirage (#1)
Unfortunately, until there is a fuel distribution system (this is the major problem with converting fuels) --- this is cool but unusable out in the real world
#12. To: BTP Holdings (#11)
#13. To: Arete (#12)
#14. To: Rube Goldberg (#10)
#15. To: mirage (#6)
Where can one can get a fillup of Soybean oil at 2am? Where can one buy one of these cars?
#16. To: fatidic (#15)
I think you are right, we should just give up and accept the status quo (not).
#17. To: Dakmar (#8)
1908 Ford Model T: 25 MPG, 2004 EPA Average All Cars: 21 MPG
#18. To: robin (#17)
#19. To: mirage (#16)
Well, then, what's the solution? Here's a cool idea that is simply not currently viable in the marketplace.
#20. To: Dakmar (#18)
#21. To: robin (#20)
#22. To: fatidic, mirage (#19)
Instead of complaining that a great idea is not "currently viable in the marketplace" why don't you come up with a solution
#23. To: Grumble Jones (#0)
#24. To: Dakmar (#21)
Sure, just take it to a blacksmith, if you can find one. :)
#25. To: robin (#24)
#26. To: Grumble Jones (#0)
Cheeseborough
#27. To: mirage (#1)
Unfortunately, until there is a fuel distribution system (this is the major problem with converting fuels) --- this is cool but unusable out in the real world :(
#28. To: All (#27)
#29. To: BTP Holdings (#28)
#30. To: Dakmar (#25)
#31. To: wacsog10 (#30)
#32. To: Dakmar (#22)
I envisioned a flat-4 boxer engine mounted behind a front transaxle years before Subaru began producing cars with that layout, my dad said it was a goofy idea, but I thought low/inboard center of gravity couple with long hood styling would be a sales leader in the sport/economy market.
#33. To: Dakmar (#25)
Completely off topic, but how can I move to Venice, Italy?
#34. To: wacsog10 (#23)
This "NEW" story, and thousands of it's illegitimate cousins, has been around for 50 years, and, is just as much bullshit now as it was then.
#35. To: BTP Holdings (#27)
The distribution system could handle soybean oil quite easily.
#36. To: fatidic (#19)
why don't you come up with a solution instead of just complaining about it?
#37. To: Axenolith (#34)
#38. To: wacsog10 (#37)
As far as you and your grandfather getting 93 mpg, I can only assume you were either decending from Mt. Everest, or your calculator's battery went dead.
#39. To: mirage, lodwick (#35)
But let me throw one more problem with you - how do you grow soybeans without using natural gas and oil as inputs? Fertilizers are made from those.
#40. To: BTP Holdings (#39)
We need to dispel this utter ignorance that people suffer from with the oil- based chemical paradigm.
#41. To: mirage (#1)
#42. To: Brer' (#41)
Soybeans take water and fertilizer and tractors and harvesters and trucks. Oils , a tiny percentage of the seed is oil, it must be crushed, extracted, transported several times and used in a special diesel type engine.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest