Author archive
Turning Plastic Back Into Oil?
International experts in the area of renewable technology believe that when a society reaches a certain level of affluence, they start to demand better and more technologies that are sustainable and/or renewable. We’ve seen this over the years in the automotive industry. About ten years ago, hardly any car companies had hybrid vehicle and all the really upmarket vehicles were all about power and big gas-guzzling engines. Today, however, nearly every manufacturer has at least one hybrid in the lineup – and these hybrids aren’t snail-paced little dinkies. To take one example, Audi has added the e-tron plug-in hybrid to its already popular luxury A3 line. This hybrid certainly isn’t a slug!
Cars that use little or no fuel (if the electricity was generated using a renewable source like hydro) are one part of the sustainable motoring equation. Finding alternative sources of fuel that don’t rely on crude oil that (a) is going to run out eventually and (b) comes from politically volatile nations is the other. We’ve discussed a few of these in the past – algae biodiesel, ethanol, jatropha and the like – and we’ve now found another great development.
The stuff we put in our cars so they chug along from A to B isn’t the only thing that comes from crude oil. The other major use is plastic. Now, plastic was developed at about the same time as the internal combustion engine (Bakelite was invented in the 1850s) and really took off in about the 1950s. And we all know how it’s taken over since then and we’re forever tripping over the ruddy stuff on the beach, etc. etc. I could easily go off into a rant about plastic shopping bags and how we need to go back to paper bags instead but I’d better stay on topic.
Plastic is made from oil. Theoretically, then, it should be possible to “unrefine” it and turn it back into oil. This is exactly what one Japanese inventor has managed to do. Akinori Ito, founder of a company called Blest, has come up with a machine that will do exactly that. This machine isn’t some massive monster of a factory plant, either. It’s small enough to fit into the average garage and can convert polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene back into crude gas. This gas can’t be poured straight into your vehicle’s fuel tank (although it can be used in some generators), as it needs further refining before it’s OK for that.
It’s pretty efficient, too. It can take 1 kg of plastic and turn it into about 1 litre of crude. The machine is powered by electricity and the process of turning the kilo of plastic into the litre of crude takes 1 kW/h of electricity. It does produce some residue that is, according to (a) the manufacturers and (b) Japanese regulations, burnable. The process also produces a few greenhouse gases (methane, ethane, propane and butane) but the latest refinements contain a gas filter that breaks these gases down into CO2 and water.
The real beauty about this machine is that although it doesn’t convert all plastics to oil, it does deal with some of the most common ones – the sort of thing that most of us have sitting in our rubbish or recycling bins. Here’s a little exercise that you can try once you’ve finished reading this: Go to your rubbish bin and/or recycling crate and pick out the polypropylene, the polyethylene and the polystyrene. Weigh it. Every kilo adds up to a litre of fuel.
- Polystyrene: disposable cups and other tableware, those trays from supermarket-packed meat, CD cases, packaging, disposable razors, anything stamped with the recycling number 6.
- Polyethylene: plastic shopping bags, plastic toys, clingfilm, bubble wrap, buckets, lids, pipes, lids, some bottles, anything stamped with PE inside the recycling triangle symbol.
- Polypropylene: thermal clothing, ropes, carpets, packaging of some sorts, lids, drinking straws, disposable nappies, feminine hygiene products, anything stamped with recycling number 5.
Feeling like you’re sitting on a potential oil well? Starting to wonder why we’re just burying this stuff in the ground if we can make petrol out of it? You won’t be the only one!
At the moment, the machines are a little on the expensive side, costing US$12,700 at the moment. Blest mostly produces the larger machines, but I’m sure it would be possible for communities or local councils to get hold of these and collect material from householders and businesses and start some drop-off-your-plastic-and-get-cheaper-petrol scheme up. Or some company could look into and find a way to turn office waste into fuel for the company fleet.
Those who want to know more can check out the official promo video
Alternatively, take a look at the Blest website.
I don’t know about you, but I’d certainly like one of these for Christmas!
Safe and happy motoring,
Megan
Book Review: Top Gear – How To Parachute Into A Moving Car
Title: Top Gear – How To Parachute Into A Moving Car
Author: Richard Porter
Publisher: BBC Books, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-849-90635-7
Very few of us are likely to get a bright shiny new car this Christmas. Although some of us might be living in hope… However, in the more realistic gift department, a car-related book might be in order. Possibly this offering from the Top Gear franchise might fit the bill either for you or for someone else you know who’s into motors (if it’s a present for you, tactfully leaving this page open when your nearest and dearest are about to go online might be good for dropping a hint).
The subtitle of Top Gear’s “How To Parachute Into A Moving Car” is “Vital survival tips for the modern man.” In spite of this subtitle, the book should give most recipients a chuckle, male or female. And you will get a chuckle. Although there are some bits of good motoring advice sprinkled throughout the text (e.g. how to do a handbrake turn) and some thought-provoking pieces (how to make a car for old people), the majority is a light hearted and slightly cynical look at driving today, especially driving in Britain. If you are (1) after a serious automotive book or (2) easily offended and drive an Audi, then you might want to browse another section of the shelves at your local bookshop. The “how hard can it be?” rating given to each entry provides good material for discussions, and the “how to find your petrol station stance” entry could easily be turned into a sort of game of bingo to keep the kids in the back seat amused when you’re taking a long time at the petrol station refuelling, checking the air pressure in the tyres, etc.
Understandably, the book contains numerous references to the TV show itself (well, what do you expect from something published by BBC Books?). If you have seen the episode in question, the commentary will bring back amusing memories. If you haven’t, it will pique your curiosity and make you want to see it (in my case, this was the one about playing rugby with cars). Sometimes, if you haven’t seen the show, the references are a little puzzling and tedious, but on the whole, the book is enjoyable all the same.
The tips and “advice” given don’t just confine themselves to car-related topics and wry comments about the three presenters (e.g. “How to dress like James May: Find a charity shop that hasn’t had any new donations since 1976. Buy all their clothes off them.”). You will find other topics related to life in general sprinkled in there, such as “how to feel like a hero when using the microwave oven” and “how to buy trousers”.
And as for the advice about parachuting into a moving car? First of all, watch this clip of the actual episode:
For the next part of the instructions, you’ll have to read the book yourself.
Happy driving,
Megan
Daytime Running Lights – Should They Be Mandatory?
A lot of modern vehicles are fitted with daytime running lights – a set of little lights that go on automatically every time the engine gets switched on. This is particularly the case for European vehicles for the very simple reason that the EU requires all cars to have them. Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) have had mandatory daytime running lights for quite some time (since the 1970s, in fact), so you can bet your boots that any self-respecting Saab or Volvo is going to have them.
A nice example of daytime running light design from Audi.
The purpose behind daytime running lights is simple safety. The human eye is drawn to glittery, shiny objects – that’s the whole reason why precious stones and very shiny metals are considered so valuable and why luxurious fabrics and paints have a bit of a sheen to them. This means that if you’ve got the daytime running lights on, it’s easier to see you. And the stats do bear the basic theory out. According to the Australian College of Road Safety, daytime running lights are “able to prevent up to 11% of multi-vehicle severe crashes, and up to 12% of pedestrian fatal crashes in Australia.”
Many of the countries that make daytime running lights compulsory are in higher latitudes: the Scandinavian nations mentioned above, plus Canada and now the rest of the European Union. This is because during wintertime in places that are a bit further from the Equator, days get a lot shorter and the sun doesn’t get as high or as bright. The question therefore needs to be asked if they would have the same effect if made compulsory in Australia, which is what the Australian College of Road Safety is campaigning for. After all, we don’t get as much of a difference between winter and summer daylight hours, especially the further north you go. Even in Tasmania, it doesn’t get anywhere near as drastic as it does in, say, Sweden. They could consider it across the ditch in New Zealand, but over here?
Some have argued that making daytime running lights compulsory would make carbon emissions worse, as using the lights requires more energy and that energy has to come from somewhere, which is usually the fuel that you put in your car. The more lights you have on, the more gas you’ll go through. However, the flip side of that argument is that proper daytime running lights with LED technology use much less energy than conventional headlights put on dip, which is the El Cheapo equivalent of fog lights or daytime running lights. LED lights tend to look prettier, too, and some designers get quite creative with how they include them in the front end design (look at the example from Audi above).
Personally, I’m ambivalent about them. They’re a pretty good idea on dull, grey days or when it’s raining. They’re also pretty good on quieter streets or out in the country, especially on silvery grey cars that have a tendency to be camouflaged against the tarmac. However, on main roads, you’ve already got tons of lights flashing and flickering, competing for your attention: indicators, traffic lights, warning lights on maintenance vehicles, advertising, Christmas lights at certain times of year, various other lights on your dashboard, all going “look at me!” It’s a bit of visual overload, and you run the risk of just tuning it all out, with the end result that all those daytime running lights become part of the landscape, kind of like sunlight reflected off puddles or a well-polished bonnet.
Some researchers have noted that if all cars have daytime running lights on all the time, motorbikes (which also have daytime running lights and have them more often) become less visible. Motorbikes are a lot more vulnerable than cars when it comes to crashing in the first place, so maybe this isn’t a good thing.
What do other people think? Should daytime running lights be compulsory in Australia? Let us know in the comments below. If you want more info about the Australian College of Road Safety’s campaign, you can read all about it at http://acrs.org.au/about-us/policies/safe-vehicles/daytime-running-lights/.
Safe and happy driving,
Megan
Misogyny, Motors and Mechanics
Dear, oh, dear… do I detect a slight note of misogyny in my fellow blogger’s post “Something Wicked This Way Comes” (a title that, incidentally, Ray Bradbury nicked from Shakespeare’s Macbeth)? The first example is a female P-plater, there’s references to a granny driver and there’s a photo of a woman who doesn’t look that old in this complaint about bad driving.
I have absolutely no complaints about the actual examples of bad driving. And it may be pure coincidence that the bad driver first mentioned happened to be female. However, there is a long tradition in motoring of misogyny and general sneering at woman drivers. Whether it’s the advertising tradition of putting bikini babes on the bonnets of cars for sale, car racing games that assume that the player is a bloke or comments like “driving like a grandmother” or calling a particularly sizzling sports car a “chick magnet”, it’s been going on for a long time and does make things a tad more difficult if you’re female and a driver. Even those “pink parks for women only” that have appeared in some parts of the world are patronizing and annoying.
You’ve also got the whole “women aren’t good with machinery and don’t know anything” attitude that can be taken by mechanics. This is best exemplified by what cropped up when I was trying to find an image for an earlier post of mine about women doing car repairs. The vast majority of images that Google popped up for me either showed a woman staring at an open bonnet looking helpless and hopeless, or else it showed some cheesecake babe bending over the bonnet (or lying on her back showing only a pair of trim bare legs) with sexily smeared grease on her face, skimpy shorts and a crop top. There are a few that do show women trying to look moderately competent but these are so obviously posed – you’re not going to make me believe that anybody is going to wear a long-sleeved white top to tinker about under the bonnet or wear a swishy skirt, dangly hair or high heels.
Here’s hoping that the only reason why she looks horrified is because she’s got to do roadside repairs while wearing white rather than because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.
Hooray – there are some decent and realistic images out there!
Yes, I always wear a short skirt and high heels to fix my car, and my skirt’s not going to ride up AT ALL.
Long loose hair, crop top, short shorts… and not a spanner in sight. The perfect outfit for repairing cars.
It gets worse than just popular images, too. Fortunately, it hasn’t happened to me, but you hear stories about mechanics charging women more than men for work done or giving poorer service. You also get the impression that women don’t exist if you go into your typical automotive supply shops – a patronizing “well, your husband would probably prefer this for his car” sort of attitude. Hello? There are a lot of single, divorced and widowed women out there who have their own cars, thank you very much. And even the ones who do have a bloke of their own may be doing their own car maintenance. In some households, it may be the woman’s responsibility (or just her turn) to take the car in for a service.
Anybody can have a rant – and you’re more than welcome to tell your stories about what it’s like to be a woman taking a car into the mechanics’ – but it’s something else to actually do something about the situation. So, if you’re a woman, here’s some actions you can take:
- Educate yourself. You are less likely to be ripped off by a mechanic if you show that you know something about what you’re talking about. For example, don’t say that “it’s making funny noises” or “this little red light keeps coming on”. Instead, try something specific – “the cam belt needs replacing,” “it’s due for a service,” and “the automatic transmission needs flushing”. Also learn a bit of the technical lingo so you know what your mechanic is talking about.
- Learn how to do your own repairs and maintenance. This doesn’t require Y chromosomes or testosterone.
- Drive properly (everybody should do this – male and female).
- Be prepared to walk away from any mechanic who is patronizing, rude or who tries to bamboozle you.
- Don’t just put up with things. Ask the mechanic to explain technical lingo and try to look interested. Complain to the management (or walk away) if there’s visible in-your-face pinups or porn where customers can see it (this includes the customer loo). If you’ve got the kids, ask for something that they can do while you’re waiting and/or a place to change nappies. Send back freebie calendars with “bonnet babes”.
Here’s to a world where the difference between good drivers and bad, or between car nuts and those who are ho-hum doesn’t depend on gender!
Happy driving,
Megan
Level 2, 9 Help Street