Old Trucks Get Their Groove Back In West Virginia

The classic car has a special place in many gear heads’ hearts. I mean, who doesn’t feel a sense of American pride thinking about Steve McQueen racing his Mustang through San Francisco or the Cadillac Eldorado in “Smokey in the Bandits”? It’s just too bad that driving these older models comes with oodles of environmental problems. That’s why it’s wonderful to see some old, diesel trucks finding a useful home at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia.

Like optical telescopes which need dark areas in order to operate properly, radio telescopes need shelter from electromagnetic interference. This is because weak cosmic signals can be easily masked by terrestrial radio waves. The NRAO, for example, is located in a quiet zone surrounded by national forests and the mountainous terrain of West Virginia.

To protect the zone from any interference, NRAO Regulations require visitors to limit motorized traffic to diesel vehicles. Electric spark plugs and computer chips inside modern, gasoline-powered cars interfere with the radio. Visitors can’t even use new diesel cars because the door chimes, seatbelt buzzers, and computer-controlled engine management systems are also problematic. 

But old diesels don’t have the same problem. They use glow plugs instead of spark plugs and mechanical fuel injection instead of electronic injection. In other words, they’re actually good for the environment around a radio telescope because they don’t interfere with its sensitive signals.

Some of the old trucks seen around NRAO include Chevrolet Suburbans, pickups, and even some diesel-powered Checker Marathons. (Remember those?!) They range in age from 30 to 45 years old, and come complete with nostalgia-worthy features like blue vinyl seats and manual windows. While they may not be the classic Mustangs and Cadillacs of your dreams, at least these old trucks seem to be getting plenty of use.

Source | Image: Driving.ca

Biodiesel Toyota Land Cruiser 200 ready for Dakar 2014

A Toyota subsidiary is preparing to enter a Toyota Land Cruiser for a very long off-road ride while emitting 60 percent less carbon dioxide than its regular diesel competitors. Toyota Auto Body Co. has enrolled a team into the 2014 Dakar Rally that will race a biodiesel-fueled Land Cruiser 200 with fuel made from used cooking oil.

The Toyota team will ride the off-road track that covers about 8,500 kilometers (about 5,280 miles) through Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The Dakar Rally will start January 4 and runs almost two weeks. Jun Mitsuhashi is looking forward to showing off his home country of Japan in the race by driving the biodiesel Land Cruiser 200. "I want to compete on the world stage in a Japanese car and with Japanese technology," Mitsuhashi told The Japan Times at an event in the city of Toyota, Japan, announcing the team's entry into the race.

Another Toyota Motor Company-sponsored team is the 2014 Toyota Imperial SA Dakar Team from South Africa that will travel the route in two Toyota Hilux customized pickup trucks (called a "bakkie" in their home country). The bakkies are well prepared and battle-ready, Toyota says.

The 2014 Dakar Rally will showcase off-road racers traveling over rugged ground – rocky canyons, dusty valley and the Atacama Desert dunes. Drivers will kick of in Argentina, wend through Bolivia and finish in Chile. The first rally took place in 1978 and ran from Paris to Dakar, Senegal in western Africa. It's been held in South America since 2009 due to safety concerns.

Roadtrek Adds Solar Power, Biodiesel to Its RV Lineup

We have maintained for a while now that the best way to convince someone that nature is worth preserving is to get them out into it. It seems like the people at Roadtrek agree- and they’re going a step further by offering a new B+ class motorhome that not only uses recycled materials in its construction, but is capable of operating entirely free of fossil fuels!

Built on Mercedes’ Sprinter van platform, Roadtrek’s eco-friendly E-Trek is powered by a 3.0 liter Mercedes diesel engine that’s 100% bio-diesel capable. The diesel is used as the primary power plant to drive the RV, and is also capable of feeding the E-Trek’s electrical system and batteries. When parked, the diesel generates 3.5 KW of power that gets bumped up to 5.5 KW while it’s on the move. Still, that’s not the most visible “green” feature on the E-Trek- that award goes to the roof-mounted, 245 watt solar panel array that continuously charges a bank of 8 AGM batteries and a 5000 watt power inverter (you’ll need that to plug standard 110/220 appliances into the outlets).

Roadtrek calls the E-Trek “the most eco-friendly motor home in the universe”. It’s not just an empty claim, though- they back that up with the batteries, solar panels, biodiesel engine, and even the composite body of the RV, itself, which uses a recycled cotton and denim insulation to help regulate temperature and a recycled, paper-based material in the counters and cabinets. Roadtrek is helping cut back carbon emissions and push back against harmful fracking operations as well, by totally eliminating propane and natural gas (full-timer RV staples) from the E-Trek’s operations.

You can find out more about Roadtrek’s latest E-Trek motorhome, and find a local dealer, at Roadtrek.com. Check it out, then let us know what you think of the E-Trek in the comments, below.

Source: Gas2.0

BioBot will make your biodiesel easy as pie for just $1 a gallon

Instead of clogging drains and hurting waste water treatment plants, what if your used cooking oil could power your car? A new device called the BioBot 20 tabletop diesel processor promised to make it easy to recycle cooking oil and convert it into biodiesel, right inside your home.

Biodiesel, as many readers will know, can be derived from waste vegetable oils and – depending on how it is made – can be close to carbon-neutral. Worldwide, there are about 20 billion liters (about 5.28 billion gallons) of biodiesel made every year, and the potential is there to increase that fivefold without diverting any oil away from food preparation. This is especially true for biofuel made from waste oil, and the makers of the BioBot 20 say it has the capacity to produce 20 liters (about 5.28 gallons) per batch. The reaction chamber is filled with used vegetable oil and then heated to a designated temperature. During that process, the oil is agitated with a built-in, hand-operated mixer. How nice and green that it doesn't use an electric motor. When it's done, the biodiesel needs to be tested for quality with a provided kit. (See the video below to learn how all of it works.)

Waste cooking oil is usually free. There will be some expenses for the methanol and sodium hydroxide needed to processed the biodiesel in the BB20, but the overall cost should be about $1 per gallon. The BB20 product sells for 415 British pounds, or about $655. So it would take a while to break even and save money for diesel vehicle drivers, but not all that long if you've got a reliable source of waste oil. Onion rings, anyone?

News Source: Gizmag, Biobot via Green Car Reports

US 'fiscal cliff' deal extends biofuel incentives, includes support for e-scooters

When the US Senate signed off on a budget agreement to (at least temporarily) avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," it stirred up plenty of debate among Democrats and Republicans. It is doing the same among those eyeing the biofuel industry. Here's how the green vehicle scene shakes out for now, including support for some electric vehicles.

In the agreement, many of the biofuel initiatives from 2008's Farm Bill were extended another year to the end of 2013, causing biofuel advocates to say that the budget agreement will save jobs and continue to help lessen dependency on foreign oil, Biofuels Digest reports. Specifically, this week's agreement, which the US House passed by about a 3-to-2 margin, extends the $1.01-per-gallon production tax credit for cellulosic biofuel by another year to the end of 2013. It also retroactively enacts a $1-a-gallon production credit for biodiesel (which ended in December 2011) through the end of the year. Cellulosic biofuel producers will also continue to be able to depreciate 50 percent of their capital costs during the first year of production.

Of course, few federal government budget agreements pass without vocal opposition.

Of course, few federal government budget agreements pass without vocal opposition, and in this case, the Union of Concerned Scientists used the occasion to vent its own frustration. Justin Tatham, senior Washington representative for UCS's Food & Environment Program, called the Farm Bill extension "a disgrace," adding that "Republican leadership copped out at the last second" by continuing to subsidize large agricultural production instead of "smart, sustainable farming practices."

On the electric vehicle front, tax credit worth up to $2,500 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for some two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles was extended.



Source: Autoblog Green

Darryl Hannah's BioDiesel El Camino Sold at Auction

For years, the great and the good of Hollywood have helped encourage people to ditch gas guzzlers by turning up to red-carpet events and driving around Beverly Hills in an eclectic mix of trendy eco-cars.

But when those cars are traded in for the latest, greenest model, or perhaps swapped for something different, what happens to ex-celebrity owned green cars?

In the case of a certain 1983 El Camino pickup truck once owned by former Kill Bill star Daryl Hannah, it gets sold for just $2,250 at auction.

The unlikely eco-ride in its dowdy gun-metal grey finish looks more suited to Montana than Hollywood, but glance at the rear window and everything becomes clear -- Hannah’s former pickup truck is powered by biodiesel made from vegetable oil.

A well-known supporter of biofuels, Hannah has been championing the biofuel alternatives to gasoline and diesel for many years. In 2003, she set up the Sustainable Biofuels Alliance, and insisted on running her stock Chevy pickup for many years without modification to prove that almost any diesel vehicle could run on fuel derived from recycled vegetable oil.

Daryl Hannah's BioDiesel El Camino Pickup Truck

One of a few hundred diesel El Caminos to be built, Hannah sold her biodiesel ride 4 years ago on eBay for a cool $10,000.

Since then, it has been the daily driver of Tennessee tech entrepreneur Freddie O’Connell, but as a consequence of an expanding family, O’Connell replaced the truck with an all-electric car, putting the classic up for auction.

We have no details on the mystery new owner, but hope Hannah's former truck continues to be fed on the finest recycled oil from fast food restaurants for many years to come.

As for Hannah? After she sold the truck, she turned her attention to the 1979 Pontiac Trans Am she drove in Kill Bill, converting it to a badass E85 hotrod.

Now if only she were to sell that...

Source: Green Car Reports