Friday, June 26, 2009

An Orange A Day Keeps The Eco-Car (Peeling) Away!

Stauro orange powered car.

by Bob Kurz

What do you think about the new Stauro 3-wheeled concept car pictured above?

Taylor Welden, a Texas-based industrial designer and engineer Harry Schoell are among the seven person team who are currently tweaking the features of this urban and eco-friendly mode of transportation in the hopes that it will soon be produced - with all materials sourced - within 500 miles of its ultimate headquarters.

Here are the stats:
100% recycled aluminum exoskeleton
3form body panels made out of 40 percent recycled co-polyester material
Orange-oil powered steam engine producing up to 700HP
Comfortably seats two passengers

Pressing orange skins in order to make an eco-friendly fuel alternative is a particularly intriguing idea that has been studied at great length. Japanese scientists have established that orange oil - which has a flash point of 56 degrees Celsius - can effectively run a CER engine (with minor challenges under winter conditions).

Traditional fuel blended with 10 percent orange oil was found to be an acceptable blending ratio that created a surprising benefit - gasoline emissions were reduced by half! Other positives include comparable fuel consumption and engine performance compared to conventional gasoline.

Orange oil has been channeled into other applications, such as with Yokohama's highly recyclable, high performance orange oil-impregnated race car tires which reduce petroleum inputs by 10 percent.

While both advances are impressive, the Stauro team's proposal leads one to believe that they are squeezing every last drop out of the orange for some astringent eco-giddy-up!

Bob Kurz writes for Greenwala where this article originally appeared. The article is published here with permission of the author.

No comments: