We have written about recycling. And we have expressed our frustration at the automotive industry’s apparent disinterest in it. As they are always choosing materials with recycling uppermost in their minds, to pander their customers. While they are beginning to use renewable products, their autos are becoming more complicated. Dare we say, unnecessarily so in terms of the bare necessities of life. But never mind, a bunch of students have just made a fully biodegradable electric car. What’s that you ask?
Well, a fully biodegradable electric car would be one our dictionary informs as ‘capable of being decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.’ It would also have electric motive power and batteries in which to store the energy. Such a creation would be on the button in terms of our long-term vision. But, it would take a mega-rich Gates, Zuckerberg, or Musk to do it, right?
The Vision Behind a Fully Biodegradable Electric Car
No, not at all. Every year, an innovator called TU/Ecomotive attached to Eindhoven University of Technology in Holland challenges the world with fresh ideas. “What is the purpose,” they ask, “of a super-efficient car when the process of producing the car, nullifies its efficiency?” Aluminum and steel, after all, are hardly sustainable. We should use something that we could grow in the garden instead and recycle, but what?
The ‘what’ is a fully biodegradable electric car the students call LINA. She’s a head turning lady the students have cobbled together from sugar beet, and flax. We traditionally use sugar beet for making sugar, while flax, some say, could be the first cultivated super food. For motive power, Lina uses three 48V 1,9kWh lithium-ion battery packs.
One day, the university called the students together and challenged them to make a motor car with flax and sugar beet. The windows may not open, but … we could be witnessing the beginnings of a circular economy where we recycle endlessly. Now that sounds like a great idea!
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Preview Image: The TU/Ecomotive Team
Video Share Link: https://youtu.be/K6b6dZWPhxU
