Alternative Fuels Power OSU Chem-E Car to Finals
On Sunday, Nov. 7 in Austin, Texas, a team of Oklahoma State University chemical engineering students will vie against others from colleges and universities across the country for the 2004 Chem-E Car national championship. Contestants are evaluated based on a technical poster and team presentation that explain the power source, unique innovations and safety features of their entries. They also score points based on creativity and the performance of their shoebox-sized vehicles that must be built for less than $50.
The national finalists have already demonstrated their engineering skills and the successful operation of their cars by respectively capturing AIChE regional titles. A wrinkle in the competition, however, assures that regional triumphs are no prediction of success in the finals this weekend.
“In the performance part of the contest, teams try to get their cars to stop as close as possible to a target distance by controlling the chemical reactions they have utilized,” said Dr. Sundar Madihally, assistant professor of chemical engineering and faculty adviser to OSU’s student AIChE chapter. “What makes it difficult is the students don’t find out until just before the start how much weight their cars will be required to carry and how far they will have to go.”
“The students refer to calibrations they’ve already determined for the chemical reactions and make performance adjustments accordingly,” Madihally said. “It’s a hands-on experience that requires students to learn what is entailed in controlling a chemical reaction, in this case, to power a vehicle over a certain distance.”
OSU’s car is powered by oxygen produced by the combination of beef liver and hydrogen peroxide. An enzyme in the liver causes the hydrogen peroxide to break down chemically, producing water and oxygen. The oxygen, in turn, pushes a piston that propels the car.
“The pressure produced by the oxygen forming works as a fuel, in a sense,” said Matt Thorn, a team member and senior in OSU’s School of Chemical Engineering. “We use the same amount of beef liver every time, but we can affect how much oxygen and pressure are produced by changing the amount of hydrogen peroxide.”
OSU’s team features chemical engineering students J. R. Blose, Anibal Delgado, Daniel Agee, Raicelina Ramos, David Tree, Samuel Adams, Clark Manhan and Thorn. They earned the bid to nationals by winning the AIChE Mid-American Regional in Tulsa in April that featured students from schools in Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.
Their first-place car stopped within six inches of the target distance of 78 feet. The team hopes to duplicate that precision and success in Austin, according to Madihally.
“The National Chem-E Car Competition finals coincide with the AIChE Annual Meeting and national student conference,” Madihally said. “It’s one of the signature events of the weekend and will be a great stage for our students to pick up another national title in design competition.”
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