1,000 ft/lbs of torque in a Production car from 1925

[custom442]

"The model E's... achieved about fifteen miles per gallon of kerosene with negligible emissions"

This is why it's necessary to burn a fuel source in the boiler. If this type of technology is used, it's really not that much of a step from IC engine. You're still combusting fuel rapidly.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Wood gas does present an interesting alternative in that it is far "Greener" than petroleum based fuels since it is carbon neutral (burning wood has the same emissions as rotting wood). My only problem is that it is not very efficient in the amount of space it takes up as a fuel. All the wood gas cars I have seen use a very large....ummm... wood stove (for lack of a better term) hung off the back of the car, and they all face problems with creosote build up in a fairly short amount of time. I do think it would be fun to build a pyrolization/steam/electric/solar hybrid though and enter it for the X prize if only for the shear Rube Goldberg nature of the thing. Can you imagine what some poor hapless car or truck would look like with all that stuff hung off of it? Then again, you could also use pyrolization to run two separate boilers- one in which the wood is burned and another that burns the wood gas, OR have a compound power source involving both steam and a small IC engine that burns the wood gas, and have them hooked to a common crankshaft. Hmm... Well... I gotta go prep for my calc final so I'll stop here for now. Otherwise I will spend all day thinking about this stuff.

 

[custom442]

My only problem is that it is not very efficient in the amount of space it takes up as a fuel. All the wood gas cars I have seen use a very large....ummm... wood stove (for lack of a better term) hung off the back of the car, and they all face problems with creosote build up in a fairly short amount of time.

This might give you some thought for later on. A normal wood stove/boiler set up uses regular atmospheric pressures. When the pressure is increased through use of a vacuum, less heat can be used to complete the same amount of work. OR if the same heat is used, the higher pressures will work to burn more than at atmospheric P.

This is why a pressurized boiler using a much denser fuel source than wood (or even coal) could be made, in theory. Since the fuel is more dense and pressure is higher, you can have the same huge burner/boiler set up doing the same work, taking up a fraction of the space. What to do with the solid waste though... maybe it could be used for ash fertilizer or something.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

This leads me to think about a wood boiler system used for home heating in the North East. A friend was telling me about it and it is super-efficient, generating a minimal amount of ash because it burns so completely. As for the test, I have until tomorrow to take it and I think I will just catch up on some sleep instead. I am too tired to think right now.