Kurt Johansen' Mulga Express averaged 4 kilometers per kg
Wood-Gas Producers
Transitional Technology
Many folks have touted electric vehicles and bio-diesel as clean
alternatives to fossil fuel based transportation and I have more than a
passing interest in the subject, yet there was always a niggling doubt
about their eco credentials.
Let me state up front that I'm a big
fan of backyard bio-diesel as using a waste resource appeals to the
scavenger in me, but there are only so many fish and chip shops around
and true waste oil is a limited resource
Commercial bio-diesel was comprehensively debunked by George Monbiot and the Toyota Prius outdoes the Hummer in environmental damage, neither is morally or environmentally acceptable in the long term or as a transitional technology
I
understand and accept that the personal car has a limited use-by date
but what of those areas with no public transport, how do small towns
and remote communities cope with an oil embargo or similar shock? My
guess would be localised adaptations using local resources and the one
resource that most areas can count on is woody bio-mass.
Wood gas powered over a million cars, trucks, buses and trains during and
immediately after world war two when fuel was severely rationed and can
do so again. I'm not advocating it for "business as usual" but I do see
it as a useful and doable response as it
A- uses biomass from marginal landscapes and so does not compete with food for our arable land
B- can be built by any competent workshop using scrap gas cylinders
C- can be adapted to any motorised transport so that it
D- uses existing rolling stock instead of using more resources
