Run your car on cooking oil, add a plug to your Prius – In the quest to be “green” and save money on gas, people are trying all sorts of desperate measures. One man drives a Prius, but that’s not enough for him?he found a way to convert it into a plug-in hybrid! And next time your gas tank is on empty, maybe you should fill it up with cooking oil?even USED cooking oil.
Researcher Stephanie Farrell says, “We are using different oils in order to observe differences in processing behavior and in the final fuel products obtained from them.” Does olive oil get better mileage than canola? Her engineering students are studying canola, peanut, soybean, olive and corn oils in addition to waste vegetable oil obtained from local restaurants.
Farrell says, “It would be ideal to run engines on waste oil, for example the oil used in deep fryers that is thrown away. An extremely hopeful scenario would be one where we devise a system to run the bus to and from?campus off of waste oils like these. It’s an ambitious dream, but it?d be a great outcome.”
Meanwhile, there’s an engineer whose house roof is covered with solar panels and who has a wind turbine as well, and of course he drives a Prius…but all that isn’t enough for him?he wanted an electric car, so he added a plug.
Jonathan Sawyer?s plug-in conversion replaces the car’s original battery pack with one having far higher energy capacity. Now his car can then travel almost 50 miles in all-electric mode without switching on the engine. The conversion also adds a charging system that lets him recharge by plugging into a standard household electrical outlet. The result is a car that can go more than 1,000 miles on a single 12-gallon tank of gasoline.
Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
What a waste! No, we’re not referring to cooking oil, we mean the fact that so many of our seemingly loyal and enthusiastic readers and listeners don’t support this website. The hard, cold truth is this: if we don’t get more support from you today, we won?t be here for you tomorrow?it’s that simple. It costs about $4 a month?less than a single latte to go with that donut?to give us the help we need so subscribe today. And please click on the new “donate” tab on our homepage too!
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