AUBURN - Professor David Bransby and Larry Fillmer, executive director of Auburn's Natural Resources Management and Development Institute, announced the Coast to Coast and Back Renewable Energy Tour kickoff and media day Monday, Aug. 4, in Montgomery.
Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks hosted the event to mark the beginning of a nationwide tour by Wayne Keith in his Bio-Truck, which is powered by biomass materials such as wood, switchgrass, crop residues and chicken litter. Keith, a partner in Renewable Energy Systems in Springville, Ala., has mounted a gasifier on a V8 pickup truck that travels about one mile per pound of wood and can reach 80 miles per hour.
He demonstrated the vehicle at the event. In late September, Keith and Bransby will begin a nationwide tour in the truck to raise public awareness of renewable energy and its economic, environmental and social benefits. Keith then will participate in a road race from Berkeley, Calif., to Las Vegas for vehicles powered by non-commercially available fuels.
Contact: Christy Rhodes Kirk, (334) 240-7103, (Christy.Kirk@agi.alabama.gov), or
Mike Clardy, (334) 844-9999 (clardch@auburn.edu)
August 15th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Will route of trck be published ? If so will the truck run through the Dallas TX area ?
Regards, John Hamil
August 17th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
Saw cars in Phillipine Islands and Japan in WWII with some type of burner in their trunk that provided gas for driving when gasoline was not available. Is the Auburn truck equipment similar?
August 18th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Sounds like cellulosic ethanol. Who is making it for Auburn or the rest of the group?
August 18th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
There is a site with more information on the Bio-Truck project at http://aubiotruck.com