The Diesel Tree: Grow Your Own Oil

[ From Treehugger ]
You’d have thought that with 20,000 stories in our archives we might’ve at least mentioned this in passing. But it seems not. Australian farmers in the wet tropical region of North Queensland have bought over 20,000 of these so-called diesel trees. The intention is that in 15 or so years they’ll have their very own oil mine growing on their farmland.

Because, the Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii, to use its botanical name, can be tapped not unlike a rubber tree, but instead of yielding rubbery latex it gives up a natural diesel. According to the nurseryman selling the trees, one hectare will yield about 12,000 litres annually. *

Once filtered—no complex refining required, apparently—it can be placed straight into a diesel tractor or truck. We read that a single Copaifera langsdorfii will continue to produce fuel oil for an impressive 70 years, with the only negative being that its particular form of diesel needs to be used within three months of extraction.

Oddly this is not news. The Center for New Crops & Plant Products, at Purdue University reports that it was first reported to the western world as far back as 1625. They observe reports from 1979 saying “Natives … drill a 5 centimeter hole into the 1-meter thick trunk and put a bung into it. Every 6 months or so, they remove the bung and collect 15 to 20 liters of the hydrocarbon.” The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation noted in a paper at the Eleventh world forestry congress back in 1997 on the topic of tree oil for cars that “… the potential of other alternatives such as the Amazon Copaifera langsdorfii need to be investigated.”

Copaifera langsdorfii can grow trunks 30 metres tall and store the oil in their unusual capilliary structure. The above image is a transverse section of the tree’s cells.

However Purdue University record that “An acre of 100 mature trees might thus be able to produce 25 barrels of fuel per year.”

Via ABC and Sydney Morning Herald

Image found at: ‘Richter, H.G., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2000 onwards. Commercial timbers: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. In English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Version: 16th April 2006. http://delta-intkey.com’

* I used to convert metric measurements in American imperial but when I discovered that the only countries that have failed to embrace metric are the USA, Liberia and Burma I stopped.

hacking for green

kym reckons that so long as people out there are competing to see how green they can be, its all good!

check out the “Hybrid Hackers” video on YouTube:

Travelling into the Future

The Energy Commissioner of the European Union Andris Piebalgs says Global oil prices may reach $200 per barrel in three years.
“When I arrived at the European Commission in 2004, a barrel of oil cost $52. It has doubled in three years. We can’t rule out that in 2011 it will be at $200,” Piebalgs told business daily El Economista. (Source: Press TV)

With oil prices soaring to heights previously regarded as a joke, a few “new” technologies are moving into the spotlight, offering alternatives to the traditional (old-fashioned?), fuel-guzzling (planet-wrecking) internal combustion engine.

The Air Car

Imagine a car that needs only air and emits only pure air out if its tailpipe! No longer are air cars in the world of our imaginations - the MDI Air Car is in production. Built with the high performance Compressed Air Technology (C.A.T.) developed by Formula One race car engineer Guy Negre, the Air Car is the major first step towards his ultimate vision: enabling clean driving at any speed and for any distance, at a cost that makes it a reality for everyone.

By Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, the Air Car is classified as a “zero pollution car”, as there are no emissions from the tailpipe. Designed to make a major difference in urban areas the Air Car runs exclusively on compressed air at lower speeds, emitting only air = zero pollution.

At speeds above 60km/h the revolutionary dual-energy compressed air engine is expected to achieve a fuel economy of a remarkable 106 miles per gallon (about). Using small amounts of fuel (gasoline, propane, ethanol or biofuels) to heat air inside a heating chamber as it enters the engine; the process produces emissions of only 0.158lbs of CO2 per mile. That is up to 4 times less than the average vehicle and 2 times less than the cleanest vehicle available today.

The Air Car can be refilled with Air at home by plugging it into a normal power outlet or in a few minutes at a compressed air station. The compressed Air tank will also automatically refill when driving at higher speeds in the future.

The miniCAT’s model specifications speak for themselves:

The Tesla Roadster

Think that electric cars are sluggish, slow & dull?
Think again!

Tesla Motors has produced a sexy 2-seater, open-top roadster with a top speed of 125 mph (200km/h). But it is the 0 to 60 mph (96.5km/h) in 4.0 seconds acceleration that is making car enthusiasts excited. The Tesla Roadster is quick, it’s quiet, it is certainly sexy and it requires NO PETROL! Plug it into its at-home charging unit, and you’ll be fully charged in about 3.5 hours. This is considered a “worst case” for someone starting with a completely dead battery. Even after a 100-mile trip, you can be completely charged in less than two hours. You will get 220 miles (354 km) per charge, and should you need to charge on the road, packed away in the trunk is an optional mobile-charging kit that lets you charge from most standard electrical outlets while away from home.

Answers to your questions are readily available on Tesla Motors’ website - from interior and exterior colours to technical specifications.

Chairman & financier recently posted on his blog:

. . . our long term plan is to build a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars. This is because the overarching purpose of Tesla Motors (and the reason I am funding the company) is to help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy, which I believe to be the primary, but not exclusive, sustainable solution.

Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized and this is no less true for electric cars. The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.

Without giving away too much, I can say that the second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price (the 2009 base models are on the market for $98,000 [http://www.teslamotors.com/buy/buyPage1.php]) point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. ”

Although the Tesla Roadster is still a niche car - with availability only in the United States, limited range and the substantial price tag - it has shown that sports car enthusiasts can see a light beyond the internal combustion engine.

BMW Hydrogen 7

Brad Pitt arrived at the premiere to Oceans 13 in a BMW Hydrogen 7 (AutoBlog Green). Whether you believe that Hydrogen is a serious contender for alternative clean & efficient fuels or not, the fact that BMW sees fit to produce the Hydrogen 7 (100 of them have been put to the test as loan cars to leading figures) is a leap forward in the automotive industry’s attitude towards oil.

Visit the BMW site to view the details of their Hydrogen 7.

Concept Cars

The automotive industry has certainly been busy with alternative energy concept cars. The list of companies and their concept cars is growing and we hope to see more in production soon!

The BMW H2R is a dual-fuel hydrogen-gasoline race car that has set 9 international land-speed records when run entirely on hydrogen - www.cool-cars.biz/bmw-h2r.html

The General Motors Chevy Volt Hydrogen plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is not only cool in design but is one of the most fuel efficient concept cars to be shown in recent years - www.cool-cars.biz/Chevy-Volt.html

The Ford Super Chief is a tri-fuel vehicle that can run on unleaded gasoline, E85 (ethanol) or compressed hydrogen - www.cool-cars.biz/ford-super-chief.html

GM created the hydrogen version of the Gulf War gas-guzzling 8 mpg Hummer to showcase the future for hydrogen technology - www.cool-cars.biz/gm-h2h-hummer.html

Future Thinking

The appalling state of our planet with its critical pollution levels and soaring costs of oil has lit one small light at the end of a very dark tunnel; the automotive industry has finally been persuaded to step up their research into alternative fuels. Yes, this persuasion might have been from indications of peak oil and financial impacts of climate change, but I think it is time to see the positive viewpoint and look expectantly towards a future of clean transportation.

coming clean

“Volvo decides to come clean”
“Nissan and Daimler beat other car makers to be recognised as the sector’s leaders in tackling climate change . . .”

Today’s local paper motoring articles shout out about what car manufacturers are doing to clean up their act, but how much are they actually doing? Is it merely green-washing or are motor manufacturers truly looking for real solutions? The internal combustion engine is really old technologically speaking and I would think that it might be about time that our geniuses out there are given the opportunity to find a new solution to the looming fuel, climate, water, agricultural, animal, human crises. Why, in the last decade or two, have we not seen amazing new motor engines, whereas we see new computer breakthroughs almost every month? Don’t tell me that there aren’t any incredibly clever engine lovers out there who have a fabulous new engine in their heads somewhere.

Perhaps this lack of real solutions is the reason why I am so sceptical when I see the vehicle manufacturers shouting about how sustainable and green they are when all I see are token gestures covering up the lack of real change and sustainability.

I truly hope that we will soon see some truly exciting technology coming from the vehicle manufacturing sector - technology that will blow our socks off! I am bored of green washing - give me something to really shout home about!