Does anyone know someone that has converted their car.?

Question

Does anyone know someone that has converted their car to either water or gas or ethanol and has worked? I see all the websites but I want some proof. I want someone to walk me through the process because they have done it themselves. Seeing is believing.

Answer 1

Ethanol can be made much more efficiently from plants other than corn (algae and switchgrass) and it actually produces less CO2 when it's burned than gasoline. Since it does produce ozone in greater quantity, a Stanford University study was not in favor of widespread adoption of ethanol, stating it 10,000 or more deaths due to ozone and particulate matter could result from ethanol use. The Renewable Fuels Assoc of course has a different opinion, but they still claim corn-ethanol is a good idea.

You can't run a car on water at present but in the future it may be possible, using a battery to power electrolysis and using the resulting hydrogen as needed for a fuel cell or combustion. But don't believe anyone trying to sell you a kit to convert your car, they refer to Brown's Gas which isn't really hydrogen and it won't improve your fuel economy.

You could install small electric motors on each wheel, a bank of batteries and charge them at home. Someone where I live has done that but they used lead-acid batteries which is a bad idea. In a collision, gallons of battery acid will go flying around and I wouldn't want to be in that car if it happened. The new lithium-ion cells being developed for the Chevy Volt will be great since they function even if damaged and they don't leak toxins even if crushed. They use nanomaterials, as do many of the most promising alternative fuels. Add a small engine powered by ethanol to top off your batteries on a long trip and your CO2 emissions would be close to zero with at least 100 mpg.

Competition for waste vegetable oil to use as fuel is intense now so it's probably not a viable option and it requires some processing before it can be used as a fuel, too.

Within two years many more options will be available, but at present it would be difficult and expensive to do these conversions yourself. Hydrogen for fuel cells can be created as needed using nano-materials that QSI has developed, at 85% efficiency, much higher than in the past. But those materials are still being developed and aren't available to consumers yet. http://www.qsinano.com/white_papers/2006...

Answer 2

Ethanol is a bad alternative. When you burn ethanol you create co2. The idea car companies give is that the co2 is given back to the plants well ethanol is same as burning crops ... The old times farmers used to make fertlizers etc out of the corn leftovers. Ethanol contains less energy than gasoline <--- weak alternative

h2o aka dihydrogen oxide is H2 with an O. Well if electrolysis put in the water they split. Creating oxyhydrogen a very flammable gas. Dihydrogen oxide is fuel for space shuttles.

The energy is almost renewable since you get fuel in return again after the burn. H2+O--> H20 electrolysis --->H2+O. Most of the energy is absorbed by the generator in the engine which powers and charges the car. An additional thing that could help is a sterling or steam engine next to the internal combustion engine. The steam or sterling engine takes in the wasted heat from the combustion and changes that wasted heat to electricity with a generator or makes more motion. A solar panel is good so when your car runs out of energy a little charge could get your car to run again. The car would and should never ever go to refuel. The H2+O generator should be maintained every month or so. Around $50 every MONTH!!!

$100 every 10 year for the solar panels

is that worth it

thats like going to a gas station every time

Answer 3

I do not see progressive things like this very often because I live in Houston, TX. People work really hard here to be as unprogressive as possible.

I have seen one person at a local consignment shop who says he is running his Volkswagen Passat on Biodiesel. I saw a guy on Jay Leno that said lots of people are running their cars on vegetable oil (biodiesel). I forgot his name but he was living in New Mexico. I have heard that lots of people in California and up North are also doing this. Basically you can take any diesel engine and convert it to run on biodiesel. You just need a diesel car and a conversion kit. I have done some research on this and decided that, if I am around people who are doing it and KNOW exactly what to do... then I will try it. I am moving to Ohio soon and hoping someone will be doing it up there. I can't really afford to buy a car and risk ruining it! I recently bought  fuel efficient small car since I cannot afford a hybrid.

Regarding ethanol, I have done some research because we actually DO have a couple E85 gas stations here (85% ethanol). From what I have read, the vehicles that actually take E85 are not even very fuel efficient, so driving one is not really that great for the environment. I think it works out that, ethanol is not such a great alternative fuel. Biodiesel may be better (for the evironment).

This is what is says on Treehugger about Ethanol:

Because ethanol contains approximately 34% less energy per unit volume than gasoline, burning it results in a 34% reduction in miles per US gallon; that is to say, if your car gets 30 mpg and you switch to pure ethanol (that'd be E100), you'd likely get about 20 miles per gallon. Further, because corn-derived ethanol requires so much of the crop, the growth of this as a fuel source has wide-ranging agricultural implications, from the price of corn (which has risen by 50% in Mexico) to the substantial amount of land required to grow the crop. Additionally, prices for U.S. corn-based products, including animal feed, also rise. This translates to higher prices for animal products like chicken, beef, and cheese; for example, June 2007 cheese prices rose to $2 per pound on average, increasing 65% over the same period in 2006.

Check out these links:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/...

Answer 4

G,Day Aaron, I have been running car on gas (liquid petroleum gas) for over 10 years and as a by product of distilling petrol is a cheap alternative. In Australia all our taxis and a lot of private cars run on it.  The government Even pay for most of the cost of converting your petrol car to run on it. Ford Australia manufacture a dedicated gas vehicle being our 4ltr 6 cylinder. I run a Mercedes 300E that is made to facilitate gas (take a Look inside the filler flap on a 300e and you will see the blank next to the petrol filler that is to take the gas filler.) I currently also run a ford V8 5Ltr that takes to gas very well. Don,t know what country you are in but in Australia gas is available at all service stations and is around 1/3 the cost of petrol. Any Questions give me an Email only to happy to help with info.

Good Luck!

Answer 5

A guy I know has veggie oil run truck, my bf's professor has a solar panel on his car....