When you hear the word renewables, your mind likely conjures images of solar panels and wind farms. However, researchers are trying to change the game with this: the vehicle they have named Waste2Race.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00When you hear the word renewables, your mind likely conjures images of solar panels and
00:08wind farms.
00:09However, researchers are trying to change the game with this.
00:12The vehicle they have named Waste to Race, a car powered entirely by hydrogen derived
00:17from sewage.
00:19This is Dr. James Meredith, Chief Engineer for Sustainable Materials at the University
00:23of Warwick to explain how it works.
00:25We have a microbial electrolysis cell, which is actually used for cleaning waste water.
00:33When the sewage goes through this process, microbes grown on a carbon fiber substrate
00:39will eat the sewage and produce hydrogen during that process.
00:44Unfortunately, he goes on to say that the car itself does not have an on-board electrolysis
00:48system.
00:49Rather, that is done elsewhere.
00:50And then the hydrogen is compressed before the car's tank is filled.
00:53Still, hydrogen is a clean energy source, one many researchers say we need to be looking
00:57into to power humanity's future.
01:00More specifically, this project aims to change the way we think about motorsports, with Reuters
01:04reporting that Toyota, BMW and other racing teams are already considering hydrogen fuel
01:09for their next generation of race cars.
01:11Generally speaking, the whole purpose is to try and demonstrate that actually you can
01:16do motorsports in a sensible, sustainable fashion using some of these sort of waste
01:21materials that we can still prove they've got high performance left in them.