Hen John Rinaldi might wind up leaving San Francisco quickly. Practically everyone he is aware of on the town is transferring out. To paraphrase Hen John, the billionaires are kicking the millionaires out, turning the once-eclectic metropolis into an unaffordable, company, NIMBY suburb.
However Hen John received’t depart till he’s made his stand. In June, he introduced his candidacy for Mayor of San Francisco; he’s one in every of 13 candidates operating towards incumbent Mayor Gavin Newsom. If Hen John is fated to depart the city the place he has grow to be one thing of an area legend, he desires San Franciscans to take , onerous take a look at his Cafe Racer – a 1975 GMC pickup truck that may run on espresso grounds.
Hen John Rinaldi For Mayor Poster from Scott Beale of Laughing Squid
This will likely sound sci-fi and incomprehensible, however Hen John insists on the alternative. The method that fuels the Cafe Racer just isn’t new – it’s known as gasification or woodgas, and through World Battle II, on account of petroleum shortages all through Europe, almost 1,000,000 automobiles on the continent had been powered by woodgas.
What’s extra, stated Hen John, woodgas just isn’t a tough idea to know, and even to place into motion.
“Anybody might do it,” Hen John stated. “You possibly can do it. …That is an unlikely, bizarre area of interest factor that I’ve finished, and I’m telling you that in case you wished to, you can do that.”
Are you able to make a hearth in a rubbish can? Can you use a cigarette? Then, Hen John says, you can construct a gasifier.
‘A Magnificence Solely A Geek Might Respect’
In March 2007, a gaggle of 15 “gasification geeks” transformed Hen John’s truck into the Cafe Racer. Utilizing solely materials that’s available at most junkyards, the crew put in a gasifier unit on the truck in simply over a weekend. “The completed rig is [admittedly] a little bit of a carnival of gasification,” stated Jim Mason, one of many leaders of the Cafe Racer Crew, on his web site on the truck’s conversion. “No try was made to have it small, tight, and discrete. Quite the opposite, the purpose was to have all of the methods uncovered and exploded for simple instructing and [demonstration]. It’s possible a magnificence that solely a gasification geek can respect.”
Cafe Racer by Scott Beale of Laughing Squid
There are alternative ways to construct and gasoline a gasifier, Hen John stated. There’s woodgas, there’s espresso fuel, there’s biogas. “You possibly can do it this manner or that approach. …You don’t should do it my approach; you possibly can provide you with your personal approach,” Hen John stated. “In the long run, it’s simply the exhaust of a fireplace.”
There’s hydrogen within the exhaust of fireside – that’s the fixed. The density of hydrogen and gasoline in its gaseous state is comparable, Hen John stated. Though we put liquid gasoline into the gasoline tanks of our vehicles, what goes into the combustion chamber of a automobile is gaseous; hydrogen fuel may also gasoline the engine at this stage.
“We’re swapping hydrogen fuel for gasoline fuel. … The car doesn’t know the distinction,” Hen John stated. “You’re truly tricking the car into simply operating. The car doesn’t know that there’s something funky happening.”
Biofuel for the Hearth
Wooden chips can gasoline the Cafe Racer, and so can espresso grounds – something, so long as it has biomass. “The most effective gasoline that we’ve discovered thus far is walnut shells,” Hen John stated. “These are onerous. The more durable it’s, the higher.”
Espresso, Hen John identified, is the second-most extremely traded commodity on earth – second, in fact, to petroleum. So why on earth shouldn’t anyone develop an environment friendly method to get a car to run on espresso – for that matter, a byproduct of espresso that’s in any other case sure for a landfill?
In the intervening time, espresso might be middle-of-the-road on a practicality scale as a woodgas gasoline. About 15 kilos of espresso grounds make up one gallon of gasoline-equivalent (gge), Hen John stated. Getting sufficient of it wasn’t too powerful. Hen John and another crew members went to Ritual Espresso Roasters to get the grounds. “We use a shovel, and we unfold it out on an enormous tarp and dry it out. That’s it,” Hen John stated.
Cafe Racer Setup by Scott Beale of Laughing Squid
The first disadvantage with espresso grounds, stated Hen John, is that they have a tendency to get clumped. Whereas the truck ran positive with espresso within the gasifier, a crew member needed to get into the again of the Cafe Racer, stick a shovel into the gasifier and transfer the grounds round each occasionally, Hen John stated.
“If you would like the factor to be simply turn-the-key, and also you need to have the ability to function all the … factor from the motive force’s seat with out getting behind your truck with shovels and gloves and instruments and stuff, then yeah, there’s extra analysis and work that needs to be finished.”
In all chance, meaning changing the espresso grounds into pellet kind, a challenge that may take longer than constructing the gasifier took.
It’s the 80/20 idea, Hen John stated – they’ve gotten 80 p.c of the best way there simply, and the hardest half shall be getting the remaining 20 p.c of the best way there. The truck already can run on espresso. The problem now could be to make it extra sensible and handy than rolling as much as a fuel station and filling up with fossil fuels at $3 a gallon.
“We did 80 p.c of the work within the first two hours. Now it’s going to take 5 years for the opposite 20 p.c of the work to occur,” Hen John stated. “It’s going to take years to make this excellent. …However, I imply, it really works in the present day – like proper now, in the present day. You set biomass in it, you mild it on fireplace, and also you drive away.”
‘Fairly Outrageous’
Hen John is aware of that many individuals can’t wrap their minds across the thought of the Cafe Racer, even because the truck makes the rounds. The Cafe Racer crew took it round San Francisco this summer time to gather signatures for Hen John’s mayoral marketing campaign.
“It is a fairly outrageous assertion to make … that your automobile can run on rubbish as a substitute of gasoline. That’s sort of rather a lot for individuals to swallow,” Hen John stated. “They didn’t get up this morning and count on that they had been going to get that info.”
That’s what motivated Hen John to transform his truck within the first place.
“Once I came upon that nobody else knew, I knew I needed to construct it, simply to indicate everyone,” Hen John stated. “This complete oil firm factor, it’s a rip-off. I imply, they’ve acquired us so well-trained.”
Not everyone who sees the Cafe Racer is satisfied it’s the true deal. “There’s those who don’t consider it – even after they see the truck operating, they’ve a tough time believing that that truck is operating on biofuel,” Hen John stated. Individuals typically surprise if there’s a hidden hose pumping in gasoline.
For others, the Cafe Racer is a wake-up name, even when it’s solely a short lived one.
“Individuals are indignant,” Hen John stated. “Individuals are like, ‘Huh, you imply all this time, we might have been fixing all these issues?”
Not solely can the truck run on junk, however there are hardly any emissions – “definitely no chain of hydrocarbons that stink,” Hen John stated. “It smells like a campfire, actually, or meals – it’s onerous to place your nostril on what it smells like,” Hen John stated.
Whereas woodgas has a little bit of a cult following, Hen John doesn’t suppose that it’s rising a lot, or that “converts” are coming aboard in any important numbers.
“Individuals are like, ‘Oh, that’s actually neat.’ After which they return residence and watch tv,” Hen John stated. “Nobody’s like, ‘Wow, how can I get entangled?’ or ‘Wow, right here’s 20 bucks.’”
Conclusion
“In life, many issues which can be unlikely are issues that we do certainly do,” Hen John stated. “And one of many unlikely issues that I’ve finished in my life is that I’ve made my automobile run on wooden.”
And occasional, too. It’s a novel thought for many espresso drinkers, that the grounds have potential usefulness even after they’ve been used to brew a beverage. Hen John just isn’t the inventor of woodgas energy, however he’s one of many few People to transform his car to function on it. Simply as espresso fuels many human beings, it may gasoline a truck as properly. That’s the reason, win lose or draw within the San Francisco mayoral race, and wherever he could also be residing within the years to return, INeedCoffee salutes Hen John as a espresso achiever.
Election Outcomes
UPDATE: Hen John earned 1.75% of the favored vote and didn’t win the Mayoral election.
Flickr Gallery for Woodgas Pickup Truck by LaughingSquid
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