"Hey, Mac! Fill 'er Up With Sunshine,
Check the Tires, and Gimme a Map!"
They're not your Grandad's "flivver."
Picture these: a hot rod that makes pit stops for natural gas, a
race car that refuels on sunshine, or a pickup truck running on propane. How about
a compact car that pulls up to the nearest electric outlet when the fuel gauge
nears "empty?"
You won't find them on the sales lots just yet, but they may be closer to your
garage than you'd think. At the 1997 Illinois State Fair in Springfield, cars that ran --
actually ran -- on natural gas, corn, propane, electricity and sunlight were on display.
The innovative designs someday soon may reduce major air pollution problems in
Illinois cities while reducing dependence on more conventional foreign fuel sources. Keys
to their development are innovative vehicle design and cleaner-burning engines.
The cars assembled for the State Fair by the Illinois EPA's Bureau of Air were only a
few of a new breed of vehicles that utilize environmentally friendly alternatives to
traditional fuels.
Demonstrating the potential alternatives were the "Prominence I", built by
Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, and one of only three community-college
designed and built cars to compete in 1997 Sunrayce, a cross-country endurance and
performance competition for solar vehicles and the "Photon Torpedo," end-product
of a two year project at the University of Illinois that won first place for overall
design at the 1997 Sunrayce. The college of engineering at the U.of I. also sent a
modified Ford Escort Wagon that runs on a combination of electricity and ethanol. The
vehicle, that competed in 1993 and 1994 hybrid vehicle competitions and won several
awards, run on batteries that maintain their charge by using a generator powered by an
internal combustion engine burning ethanol.
The Northern Indiana Public Service Co. sent a fully electric vehicle, a pickup that
can travel 50-90 miles before recharging its lead-acid battery, while the state of Vermont
displayed a converted Geo Metro that uses nickel-metal hydride batteries and can hit
speeds of 60 miles an hour and travel 100 miles between recharges.
The Illinois EPA displayed its own 1997 Ford Taurus that can operate on any blend of
ethanol and gasoline, up to 85 percent ethanol. With a base cost that is $345 less than a
comparable gasoline model, the vehicle is one of 370 alternate-fueled vehicles purchased
by the state of Illinois since 1992. It gets approximately 400 miles per tankful, similar
to mileage for gasoline-using vehicles.
Also on display were a dragster exhibited by Greenfuels and the Lundquist family,
powered by compressed natural gas; a letter carrier vehicle displayed by the U.S. Postal
Service in Peoria, also using compressed natural gas, and a high efficiency smokeless
diesel engine, courtesy Navistar and Rhone-Poulenc that utilizes an advanced fuel
injection system and a special fuel additive to simultaneously reduce smog-producing
oxides of nitrogen and eliminate more than 90 percent of the particulate emissions.
To provide perspective, the State Fair display offered videos and computer-generated
programs showing how undesirable ground-level ozone (smog) differs from the highly
desirable ozone layer, and demonstrated how ground-level ozone is formed and transported.
Additional information can be obtained from Julie Neposchlan at the Illinois EPA,
217-782-6936.
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