Invention Nation on The Science Channel

Invention Nation on The Science Channel is a new green show.  A description from the Science Channel site reads, “Micah, Chris and Nobu – three guys passionate about the green life – take a veggie-fueled trip across America in search of amazing eco-inventions. Their journey takes them from New York to California, while they seek out the grassroots green inventors.”  In actuality, they start in California.  Minor details…

They begin the journey in an ugly green diesel van – a green short bus, really - in Los Angeles.  The first stop on their trek was to fill-up on biodiesel which they made using the Fuelmeister. The Fuelmeister is a contraption that uses veggie oil, lye, and methanol to create clean biodiesel. 

The gang decided to convert their van into a grease car instead of just running on biodiesel.  Since they will be on the move, it’ll be easier to just have the grease car system.  They visited Joel and Rebecca Woolf of Veg Powered Systems.  Micah, Chris and Nobu learned quickly how to collect clean oil for running in their van.  The first step was to mount a tank and filtration system.  The tank has a heating coil inside to heat the oil to about 180F.  The van is first started with diesel until the oil is heated to the proper burn temperature. The oil runs from the heated tank to a pump, through a filter, and then to the engine.  By the way, the gang collected about 20 gallons of oil from their first stop in 5 minutes.  That’s over a full tank of gas for free.

Look for next week when they install solar panels on the van and checkout some bamboo bikes.

Invention Nation airs Mondays at 10pm EST.  Click here to watch a video clip.