HOLDEN Design a Car to Run on Dirty Nappies ( How Appropriate!!!)

csv8 · 24-03-2010, 02:25 PM

Holden hopes to have a car fuelled by household waste within a couple of years.

Australia’s most popular car could soon be running on dirty nappies and food scraps.

Holden has formed a consortium with Caltex, the Victorian Government and three other technology companies to explore the viability of an ethanol plant in Victoria that would convert household rubbish into fuel.

And the car maker has committed to launching a Commodore that is capable of running on 85 per cent ethanol by the end of the year.

Caltex will support the introduction of the new E85 Commodore by installing E85 pumps in 30 metropolitan and regional service stations later this year and increasing that figure to 100 within 12 months. The E85 Commodores will also be able to run on regular unleaded or E10 petrol.

The ethanol plant would take two years to build and would be capable of producing 200 million litres of ethanol a year from a variety of waste, including building materials, paper, cardboard and household food scraps. It would cost roughly $300 to $400 million to build.

The technology to convert the waste into fuel has been developed by US firm, Coskata. The process uses bacteria that feed off carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen and excrete ethanol. Local waste management company Veolia will be responsible for providing the household waste to the plant.

Holden’s energy and environment director, Richard Marshall, said the technology would provide environmental benefits as well as reducing Australia’s dependence on foreign oil.

“Our vision is that this technology will, in time, cut Australia’s dependence on petrol by up to 30 per cent and make a contribution to sustainable motoring and greenhouse gas reduction,” Mr Marshall said.

Marshall said using household waste rather than food sources meant ethanol production could be significantly increased without raising any “food for fuel” issues.

“This process can use anything from dirty nappies to food scraps,” he said.

Australian ethanol is currently developed from waste by-products of sugar cane and wheat, but to increase production substantially, the current suppliers would need to convert food-producing agricultural land to ethanol crops, which would attract criticism.

“What we’re trying to do here is to move [ethanol] from a boutique fuel into the mainstream,” he said.

To move the fuel into the mainstream, however, the consortium will need to overcome the fact that E85-capable cars use substantially more fuel than petrol cars.

To attract buyers, petrol stations will have to heavily discount E85, but Marshall believes the price will be “very competitive” with petrol, especially in the longer term as petrol prices rise.

“We know that if petrol is about $1.50 a litre we need to be selling E85 for about $1.20 a litre.

“We’re expecting over the next year or so that the price of petrol is steadily going to go up. Even if ethanol right now at the bowser mightn’t be cheap enough to make it financially neutral we expect that over the next few months or year that will certainly change,” he said.

He said that converting waste to ethanol was a cost effective solution, because people would actually pay to supply the plant with its raw materials.

“You’ve actually got people paying you to take it away,” he said.

The plant would also help the environment by converting waste into fuel rather than landfill, which produces methane.

General Motors has a big commitment to ethanol fuels in the United States, with more than 3.5 million E85-capable cars on the road. It has committed to making more than half its vehicles E85 compatible by 2012.

Caltex Australia’s general manager, marketing, Andy Walz, said the company was committed to expanding beyond its traditional fuel mix.

“Caltex already has about 400 service stations that sell E10 and a growing biodiesel market. We believe the biofuels industry has a vital role in a sustainable transport fuels future and that biofuels are a good business opportunity for Caltex,” he said.

Marshall said ethanol would form part of a multi-pronged “sustainable motoring” strategy for Holden.

“We’re not saying this is the only solution. We’ve always said there are multiple solutions. There’s no silver bullet. I think people are now starting to talk about silver buckshot. Ethanol is very much an important piece of that buckshot, LPG is another and then electricity is part of it as well and conventional petrol will be important,” he said.

**Polyal** · 24-03-2010, 02:30 PM

We have one of the worlds largest supplies of LPG and they waste there time with this.

Good on GMH for getting their name out there again.

uranium_death · 24-03-2010, 02:44 PM

Could soon be running on dirty nappies...........and fairy dust too.

It's all about creating a green image.

RedHotGT · 24-03-2010, 03:05 PM

So - to refuel, I just roll up to the local dump/tip and cram some filthy rubbish in to my car??

I think I prefer a servo thanks...

csv8 · 24-03-2010, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loftie

So - to refuel, I just roll up to the local dump/tip and cram some filthy rubbish in to my car??

I think I prefer a servo thanks...

Only if you have a HOLDEN !!!!!!!

Wheezy031 · 24-03-2010, 03:12 PM

I for one think E85 in more places is great.

There is currently two pumps in VIC that I know of.

Fuel Town in Southland and United in Hoppers Crossing.

Bring on the E85 and more timing in my engines

Paxton · 24-03-2010, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polyal

We have one of the worlds largest supplies of LPG and they waste there time with this.

Good on GMH for getting their name out there again.

Natural Gas is not LPG. LPG is refined from Crude Oil. We have the world's largest supplies of Natural Gas.

What is E85 like for economy? Finally the 3.0 SIDI might achieve something.

snappy · 24-03-2010, 03:15 PM

couple of years ,pffft
Couple of decades maybe

aussie muscle · 24-03-2010, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loftie

So - to refuel, I just roll up to the local dump/tip and cram some filthy rubbish in to my car??

I think I prefer a servo thanks...

reminds me of back to the future, where he fills up his Mr Fusion with some garbage ''I need fuel..."

ltd_on20s · 24-03-2010, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by loftie

So - to refuel, I just roll up to the local dump/tip and cram some filthy rubbish in to my car??

I think I prefer a servo thanks...

lol no, what they do is they take rubbish waste to a specialist refinery. it's mixed with bacteria and put under heat and pressue to liqufy it.

once it's liquid they then refine it back into petrol.

remember oil is just old bones and organic life that has been turned to liquid under heat and pressure over time.

this is just a faster version of that.

any organic matter can be made into petrol.

icer · 24-03-2010, 03:21 PM

i wouldnt say no to free fuel...

**Polyal** · 24-03-2010, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paxton

Natural Gas is not LPG. LPG is refined from Crude Oil. We have the world's largest supplies of Natural Gas.

What is E85 like for economy? Finally the 3.0 SIDI might achieve something.

Ah well there you go, learn something new everyday.

Chopped · 24-03-2010, 03:29 PM

The New Boss is onto something. I always wanted to build a Flux Capacitor but now Holden will possibly build one for me.

RedHotGT · 24-03-2010, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ltd_on20s

lol no, what they do is they take rubbish waste to a specialist refinery. it's mixed with bacteria and put under heat and pressue to liqufy it.

once it's liquid they then refine it back into petrol.

remember oil is just old bones and organic life that has been turned to liquid under heat and pressure over time.

this is just a faster version of that.

any organic matter can be made into petrol.

that process sounds cheap....

RedHotGT · 24-03-2010, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by icer

i wouldnt say no to free fuel...

Sorry - your comment made me think of this...
*(SIMPSONS QUOTE)*

Homer: Okay, boy. This is where all the hard work, sacrifice and painful scaldings pay off.

Clerk: Four pounds of grease. That comes to... sixty-three cents.

Homer: Woo-hoo!

Bart: Dad, all that bacon cost twenty-seven dollars.

Homer: Yeah, but your mom paid for that.

Bart: But, doesn't she get her money from you?

Homer: And I get my money from grease. What's the problem?

*******
Ain't nothin for free....

The G6ET Spot · 24-03-2010, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by csv8

Australia’s most popular car could soon be running on dirty nappies and food scraps.

Then it will really be a Crappadore in the true sense of the word

Quicksand · 24-03-2010, 06:49 PM

Doesn't anyone else think this could be a good idea?? The technology is already available to convert waste products to Ethanol, so we have a 'fairly' renewable source of energy (lets face it, we are always going to have some form of waste)...as an added bonus less goes into land fill...whats wrong with this? Am i missing something or are we purely just being Holden Haters again??

**TUF_302** · 24-03-2010, 07:10 PM

Always knew holdens were S!@# lol!, now they will smell like it to haha!

f1tzy · 24-03-2010, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paxton

Natural Gas is not LPG. LPG is refined from Crude Oil. We have the world's largest supplies of Natural Gas.

What is E85 like for economy? Finally the 3.0 SIDI might achieve something.

E85 is less economical

mcflux · 24-03-2010, 07:25 PM

It's been done.

Bossxr8 · 24-03-2010, 07:46 PM

I knew GM Holden ran on total crap, now their cars can too.

They would have plenty of crap to use by putting a bucket under Bob Lutz's mouth.

fordlova8 · 24-03-2010, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aussie muscle

reminds me of back to the future, where he fills up his Mr Fusion with some garbage ''I need fuel..."

"You took the words right out of my mouth"

joolz · 24-03-2010, 08:19 PM

Whats that saying?? Ah thats it "You are what you eat" So what does this say for the new E85 Holden.....

Wheezy031 · 24-03-2010, 08:54 PM

I love the ignorance of this thread.

High Ethenol blends are common practice in the states, v8 super cars run it too.

Sure it uses 20-30% more fuel (IE fuel system upgrade), but it is cheaper per litre and make great power.

There are quite a lot of jap import guys using it in their cars on the street in aus. The only reason it is not as common as there is ******** all places to get it right now.

Hopefully that will change soon.

I for one will be using it once I have some more money to splash on some bigger injectors (again) and some redundancy in my fuel system for a safety net.

Get on the bandwagon ;)

blkvt8 · 24-03-2010, 09:02 PM

can they brin back the delorian as well caz they were kick ***

Stoney! · 24-03-2010, 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polyal

We have one of the worlds largest supplies of LPG and they waste there time with this.

Good on GMH for getting their name out there again.

Not all of us want time bomb in the boot of our car thats starving our engines of lubrication...

Stoney!

Wretched · 24-03-2010, 09:40 PM

Good on Holden for jumping on this opportunity. It is a benefit to us all (if all parties keep it going) and even more so a great marketing tool.

This is where Ford should have been, they should have been the ones to get it on this.
You wonder why Holden has more publicity?