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155 MPH Biofuel Truck Breaks Speed Record

Posted by Soulskill on from the zoom-zoom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A team of students from Boise University recently shattered the world land speed record for biofuel vehicles by traveling 155 mph in a vegetable oil-powered pick-up truck dubbed the Greenspeed. To achieve the speed record the vehicle was upgraded with a compound-turbocharged 5.9 liter Cummins straight-six diesel engine that produces 700 horsepower, and it ran on an oil mix consisting of cottonseed and sunflower oil."

17 of 105 comments (clear)

  1. I want one. by Tastecicles · · Score: 2

    Wait. No I don't. It's 2011, people, where's my hover conversion!?

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    Operation Guillotine is in effect.
    1. Re:I want one. by BigBlueOx · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's close. Real close. Once the problem of eliminating the capacitive reluctance inside the hydrocoptic marzelvanes is solved (simply an engineering fix) control of the milford trunions will in the range of 90%. Any day now.

    2. Re:I want one. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is more of a So What. The BioFuel Truck can travel at 155MPH so what. That thing is puffing out carbon and smog there is no tomorrow . There isn't any words how many MilePerGallon. Yea yea you can regrow the plants and they will take the carbon back... But how much extra carbon will we produce to make the oil. How many Carbon Eating trees will we need to cut down to grow this material.

      Our Roads cannot handle 155MPH anyways. Even where there is no speed limit most people don't go that fast.

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      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:I want one. by migla · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And what about the burning of food stuffs in cars?!? That sounds totally insane, when there are people about that rather eat those sunflowers. It would be as crazy as if we based the entire economy on lying and greed!

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      Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
    4. Re:I want one. by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 2

      You don't want a hovercar.

      Or more accurately, you don't want a hovercar on the market. All the idiots that can't drive in 2D will be flying around in 3D.

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      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    5. Re:I want one. by The+Wild+Norseman · · Score: 2, Funny

      It is more of a So What. The BioFuel Truck can travel at 155MPH so what.

      This is Boise, Idaho we're talking about.

      I'm just surprised the thing could make it past sixty what with the requisite naked woman silhouette mudflaps and beer keg in the back...

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      "A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
  2. 155mph isn't green using any fuel by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fertiliser used to grow the plants was created using the Haber-Bosch process which uses lots of natural gas.
    The ploughing etc is all highly energy (oil) intensive.
    The processing an transport use existing oil reserves.

    Finally, the energy consumption of the vehicle increases with the square of the speed.

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    Deleted
    1. Re:155mph isn't green using any fuel by lobiusmoop · · Score: 2, Informative

      Also, the Haber-Bosch process does not consume natural gas, it consumes hydrogen...

      Was going to mod, but have to reply to this.

      From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process:

      By far the major source of the hydrogen required for the Haber-Bosch process is methane from natural gas.

      --
      "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    2. Re:155mph isn't green using any fuel by dbialac · · Score: 2

      Then add on the fact that both the transportation processes and the farm equipment can all run on biodiesel. I love how people try to distract us from the benefits of biofuels by pointing out dirty processes that are easily changed into clean ones.

  3. Flower powered by symbolset · · Score: 2

    For the win!

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    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  4. The claim the summary is very misleading. by dbialac · · Score: 2

    They may have broken the record for biodiesel, but they are a far cry from the record for biofuels in general. One example is the Bentley Continental, which is a production car and has a top speed of 198MPH. It's a flex fuel vehicle.

    1. Re:The claim the summary is very misleading. by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

      Most Koenigsegg vehicles are flex fuel and I'm pretty sure they're all faster than that.

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      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  5. Who cares? by fozzydabear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So someone put a huge, guzzling turbo diesel into a truck to get it to go 155mph using vegetable oil which has the same carbon chain length as diesel except three of them are bonded as a triglyceride. Vegetable oil being a niche fuel and will never be able to scale up as a serious fossil fuel replacement. What a useless demonstration.

  6. I care!... || Re:Who cares? by turtleAJ · · Score: 2

    Long time /. reader here.
    This is cool news... just because!
    I own a 1995 Dodge Ram 2500 with one of those 5.9 Cummins engines (CTD = Cummins Turbo Diesel).

    Mine has the legendary Bosch "P-Pump".
    These engines last over a million miles with proper maintenance.
    The only electrical thing in those engines are:::
    Starter
    Fuel Solenoid (cuts off electricity = cuts off fuel = engine dies)

    I freaking love my truck.
    I constantly get around 19-20 mpg.
    Love the sound, love the turbo whine.

    Oh, and did I mention that I run it on vegetable oil?
    Just go to any restaurant, offer to pick it up... get the best looking one... and drop it in the bed.
    Then go home, I filter it via a centrifuge (awesome USA product: WVO Designs' RawPower centrifuges!)... then drop it in the tank.
    The exhaust smells like BBQ (not so much "french fries", as it is commonly believed).

    Differences between dyno-juice and veggie-oil?
    Absolutely none that I can feel.
    Same power... same milage... same everything.
    In fact, engine runs quieter and smoother with the veggie oil.

    This truck is cool!
    Final geek cred: Who went to pick-up the new POWER6 as/400 full-rack, with new tape drive, one disk array, and the HMC, to the dock, when the delivery company dropped the ball?
    A '95 Dodge Ram with the CTD.

    Shout out to the cool people over at CumminsForum.com!

  7. Re:Grandfather told me: Eat everything on your pla by The+Creator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Food cannot stop starvation in a growing population, only family planning can do that. Family planning comes with education.

    Trying to stop starvation with food is like trying to put out a fire with fuel.

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    FRA: STFU GTFO
  8. no conversion in the article nor in the summary? by Isaac+Remuant · · Score: 3, Interesting

    /Grumpy face. (I don't like to complain but... )

    How many countries use mp/h and how many km/h? Would it kill them to write the conversion in the article/summary? Just for inclusion sake?

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    "Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
  9. Re:Grandfather told me: Eat everything on your pla by tp1024 · · Score: 2

    140mio tons of maize are being turned into ethanol in the USA alone. That's a quarter of the world maize production. Last year the world was supposedly in shock when Russia had the worst drought in 100 years or so and wheat production fell short by 10mio tons. (Yes, maize is not wheat, but the shortfall of the drought is still negligible in comparison to the amount of food burned.)