A Truck That Runs on Coffee Grounds (and How Wood-Gas Powers Cars With Garbage)
Photo Credits: deborah sherman photography
The Cafe Racer Truck Runs on 100% Recycled Coffee Grounds
A commenter on Ben’s wood-powered truck post pointed us to a similar car hack. The truck above is also powered by a wood gas generator, except this one runs on coffee grounds. The Cafe Racer is a 1975 GMC pickup that essentially burns up used coffee to create a combustible gas. The gas is filtered on its way to the engine and, Viola, a caffeine-powered truck.
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It’s interesting to note that this and the last vehicle mentioned are promoting a specific fuel (wood and coffee grounds), since the onboard wood gas generators can gasify almost any type of combustible material.
Gasification is a non-selective method using heat and a controlled amount of oxygen to convert biomass into a flammable vapor. In addition to Coffee Grounds, the Cafe Racer could use wood chips, old tires, and municipal trash, almost anything—which, by the way, is the same technology Coskata is using to make cellulosic ethanol out of garbage.
As Wikipedia puts it, gasification “was an important and familiar 19th century technology” that was commonly used until petroleum took over around the close of WWII. Although popular at that time, wood gas conversions are a bit of a throw back, but you never know what could gain popularity as gas prices continue to rise. Additionally, wood gas generators aren’t restricted to vehicles, and have found use in heating, cooking, and electricity production.
So how can a wood gas generator power a truck?
The reason a wood gas generator can power cars and trucks is that the internal combustion engine is actually powered by vapor, not liquid. In a gasoline-powered engine, gasoline is vaporized before entering the combustion chamber. Diesel is a little different; it’s sprayed into the combustion chamber as fine droplets which burn as they vaporize. Either way, if you can put a clean combustible vapor into the engine, you’ve got power*.
(*Just to mention where this information is coming from, I thought I’d point out this interesting factoid: back in 1989, FEMA sponsored a series of “emergency technology assessments” that included a book on gasification conversions. The title of the book is “Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum emergency.”)
Gasifying a solid material partially burns it, which preserves some of the energy that would normally be wasted in the gas (otherwise there wouldn’t be anything left for the engine to burn). The gas contains a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N), and a small amount of methane (CH4).
The big question for wood gas use is (as usual), how do these systems compare to other petroleum alternatives in terms of environmental impact? The group behind Cafe Racer claims that it’s a carbon-negative demonstration vehicle, but they don’t substantiate that on their website. I wasn’t able to find much on the issue, except the risk of death from carbon monoxide poisoning in poorly designed systems, but my gut instinct tells me this isn’t the cleanest way to get around. If you know of a resource on the emissions of wood gas generators, please send it my way.
The important point here isn’t so much that you can run a truck on wood gas produced from waste materials (even though that’s pretty cool), but that this technology could play a major role in producing petroleum alternatives in the near future (more on that later).
If you enjoyed reading about this, check out these links, and see more pictures of the Cafe Racer below:
Posts Related To Wood Gas Generators and Other Car Hacks:
- Run Your Car on Wood? No Joke.
- Car Hacker’s Hummer Gets 60 MPG
- How to Get 76 MPG
- Six New Technologies Will Help Manufacturers Reach the 35 MPG Goal (Without Hybrids)
- The Cleanest Cars on Earth: Honda Civic GX and Other Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs)
- 376.59 MPG Car Found In Museum (It Was Built In 1959)
- Car and Driver Increase Pinto Fuel Economy with $11 of Ecomods
- Sick of Gas?: Convert Your Car To Run On Electricity
Photo Credit: deborah sherman photography: http://www.deborahsherman.com/, (studiodeb on Flickr). Used by permission (thanks!).
[...] up used coffee to create a combustible gas. The gas is filtered on its way to the engine and, Violhttp://gas2.org/2008/05/14/a-truck-that-runs-on-coffee-grounds-and-how-wood-gas-powers-cars-with-gar…A Truck That Runs on Coffee Grounds and How Wood-Gas Powers Cars …May 14, 2008 … The truck above [...]
I think that its great
Most people do not realize that wood gas or town gas was the first gas delivered to light homes from what I have read it burns cleaner than natural gas releasing less co2. Just about every ounce of garbage you throw out can as well be turned into syngas which as well combusted and used to run a cogeneration unit that will turn it into electricity.
Lets all just sit on our hands and do nothing like our congresman and senators half of which belong in a home were they could eat oatmeal and drool on themselves.
Be sure to vote Democratic if you want to be riding the bus in 2009, You can use the change you voted for
to go pick up your food stamps which you will need as if we do not find alternatives to becoming energy independant none of us will have jobs.
eu gosto muito de carro movido a madeira gas (wood gas) por isso estou fazendo um gaseificador para uma camionete chevrolet s10 2.2 ano 95 queria muito comcluir e ter resultados para criar uma empresa de fabrica de gaseificadores, sou entusiasta na enegia alternativa (solar,hidraulica,eolica,madeira reflorestada)tudo que se possa fazer para recuperar o PLANETA TERRA NOSSO LAR . abracos e todos envolvidos na energia renovavel entre em contato
alexandre avila
A demonstration project, just to show it CAN be done. A starting place. The Starbucks downtown is giving away their used coffee grounds, wonder if…..
Of course what you are forgetting to mention is that this burns shit (or you know, wood… coffee grounds, or whatever) to make the gas that powers the engine. Burning shit means putting pollutants in the air. Lots of them. These type of cars where as you say once popular, and was also the main cause of the worst SMOG of last century.
So… not exactly a step forward to go back to this.
I helped work on this project. You’d be surprised how much better the exhaust smelled when the wood-gas lever is pulled. You need to start the truck on gasoline & let the engine warm up. This also gets the vacuum action going. Then you pull a lever & you begin sucking the wood-gas from the unit. The truck instantly goes from a typical American old truck exhaust smell to almost no smell at all. You still get carbon monoxide & can die in a sealed room, etc. But I bet it would take a little longer. It really is much cleaner than gasoline. The gasification process itself burns up a lot of the harmful by-products as well.
I suspect that the carbon-negative claim is related to the use of the residual char (after the combustible gas is driven off, there will be a fine-grained charcoal left). I have read that this is an excellent soil amendment for agriculture(Google “biochar” or “terra preta”). If one puts the char into the soil, it will sequester the residual carbon, so that the total carbon balance may be negative (depending on how much fossil fuel is consumed in growing and transporting the coffee). I have read that biochar remains in the soil for a long time (the terra preta soils of the Amazon basin are quite old), so this could be a useful carbon sequestration approach.
If only I could get my hands on a set of plans,I would build a unit for myself and test it. I truly believe in this teck. and others also.
Look people,
The government isn’t really interested in efficient vehicles or alternative fuel sources. This is a ruse for what they are really wanting, which is: no vehicles for anyone except people that they deem special or has a need for a vehicle. In 1999, an Iowa farmer answered Washington’s call for a better fueled vehicle with his Dodge D-50 compact pick up. The gas engine was converted to run on hydrogen. Al Gore met the man and threatened him. The farmer went back to Iowa with his putz in his hand. Secondly, the “evil” oil companies will be vary angry at you for screwing up the free enterprise system with all of these GD alternative fuels. Do you really want to make your point by having yourself, spouse and your babies machine gunned down in front of God and everybody? The authorities will look the other way at Uncle Sam’s behest. This kind of thinking starts fights and I do not want fights with Big Brother, because guess who always wins? Give me gas, oil and poison air anyday! You want to clean up something? Clean the water supply. Forget this vehicle business. The way to cure vehicle woes is to not vote liberals into office. If nothing else, at least be honest here and tell me how to take vehicles away from people and re-distribute them to a worthy class of people.
How many grounds per mile? Looks like something from mad maxx
When that car was a normal gas vehicle it was not very efficient because of the size & weight.
Using this gasification system in a lighter vehicle like a honda civic would produce much better results if eco friendly is what you are trying to achieve.
For a system like this you have to start a fire which burns the grounds which melts the polar ice caps.
Burning things to make energy is a step backward and will just melt the ice caps quicker. Millions of cars running on what is basically a fireplace is not any better for us than running on oil except that trees and coffee grounds are renewable.
Solar and wind to make energy is a much better option, now we just need better energy storage solutions.