After the Sustainable Transportation Forum, I thought I might look into some of the alternative forms of transportation parked right here at the festival. I set out to investigate Dr.Bjorn’s car, run almost completely on vegetable oil, and the CHFCA’s  fuel cell car, parked just outside the entrance. Both, as it turns out, can be fueled by waste.

Dr.Bjorn's Auto, showing a car that has been converted to run on vegetable oil

Dr. Bjorn showed me that a diesel engine can easily be altered (or in some cases, does not need to be altered) to be fueled by vegetable oil. The best part of this is that the car can be run on waste oil from restaurants after a simple straining procedure. This is not the same as biodiesel – the oil does not go through a chemical conversion process as it would for diesel. A vehicle that is run on vegetable oil rather than diesel can reduce particulate matter emissions by 30 – 50 % and these cars are simultaneously 30 – 40 % more efficient than a gasoline engine.

A few minutes later, I had the chance to jump in the back of the fuel cell car as a back seat driver in a test run. The fuel cell car can be fueled on hydrogen that is the byproduct of other chemical processes; Canada produces over 200 000 tonnes of this waste hydrogen per year. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be produced from a number of renewable energy sources including solar, hydro, wind, wave, or geothermal. Hydrogen is carbon-free and non-toxic; a fuel cell car emits only water and heat. The particular model at the festival can get roughly 300 km for a tank filled to 5000 psi.

I asked the test driver what he thought of the car. He answered, “Feels great to drive! Reminds me of driving a hybrid.” The car nearly seemed to float on air with only a gentle refrigerator-like hum.

Both Dr.Bjorn’s Auto and the Fuel Cell Association of Canada are available for questions at the Organic Islands Festival or you can visit their websites below:

http://www.drbjornsauto.com/

http://www.poweringnow.ca/