The recent solar-powered race at Circuit of the Americas in Texas hosted 12 teams and an array of configurations and design approaches for an endurance contest that saw Oregon State University’s Phoenix circling the track 193 times for a victory. Phoenix won a squeaker, followed closely by Illinois State with 192 laps and Iowa State with 191 laps. Although not racing the fastest car, Oregon State’s team was most persistent, drivers sometimes putting in four hours at a stretch in the heat-soaked cockpit. The fastest lap went to Iowa State’s Cory Anderson (4 minutes, 42.289 seconds), while OSU’s best was 5:26.565. Phoenix ran its 661 miles over three days, the object being to travel as far as possible in that time on the virtually new Formula 1 track, used for the first time for a noisier Formula race late last year. The Formula Sun Gran Prix took place on the Circuit of the America’s track near Austin, Texas. Oregon State’s Solar …
Another Plastics Recycler Turning Waste to Energy
A recent news item on National Public Radio caught this blogger’s ear, and showed the increasing number of companies attempting to control an otherwise uncontrollable growth of plastic waste. JBI, Inc., a startup company says, in promoting its new process, “Our patent pending Plastic2Oil® (P2O®) process is a commercially viable, proprietary process designed to provide immediate economic benefit for industry, communities and government organizations with waste plastic recycling challenges.” JBI’s process uses consumer waste plastic bags (the so-called “T-shirt” bags in which shoppers carry groceries to their cars, Number 5 automotive plastic, food containers and even plastic gas tanks and wine bags. These are fed onto a conveyer system in JBI’s Niagara Falls, New York plant, where they are loaded into a hopper that can accommodate 4,000 pounds per hour of waste plastic. The material flows through an apparatus, 120 feet long, 10 feet wide and 20 feet high, which first preheats and liquefies it. Semisolid materials are separated, and the …