I was reading this article on Fox News about alternative fuel. Towards the bottom, I saw this
Wood chips can be used to heat your home, but why not use them to propel your car? That’s the idea behind the Wood Powered SUV, developed by Beaver Energy. The company’s converted 1988 Isuzu Trooper turns wood chips into an organic fuel, and can drive about 20 miles on 25 pounds of chips. The truck uses a process called pyrolization, which converts any organic compound (including wood chips, grass clippings, and even garbage) into hydrogen and carbon molecules. The fuel, produced in a contraption on the back of the SUV, is then used in a modified internal combustion engine.
I then thought of the video below I had seen a couple of years ago.
{youtube}61mBSrd4Lj4{/youtube}
Direct Link
There are 2 more parts to the video linked above. Part 2 and Part 3.
Why not make the car just run on woodgas? Sound crazy? Read the whole article….there were about a million cars converted to run on the stuff during WW2. My guess is that woodgas isn’t popular because it burns the wood. And then you have the whole deforestation thing. But we can farm trees just like any other crop (corn, wheat, etc…). When you cut one down, plant a new one. Then, in 10 years you can cut that one down too. Burning wood is also carbon neutral (the carbon released when you burn it is the same carbon it absorbed when alive).
[Update 2012-12-26 15:33:45] The videos were taken down so I’ve removed the dead links to youtube
Image from moosicorn via flickr