Dec

Around the World in a Boat Fueled by Human Fat

Posted by admin Published in Transportation Alternatives

An engineer and sailor from New Zealand hopes to circumnavigate the globe in world-record duration at the helm of a boat powered in part by the final renewable fuel - human fat.

Pete Bethune, a former oil exploration engineer, is so committed to proving biodiesel is a viable alternative to fossil fuel that he and two other Earthrace crew members underwent liposuction. Together they stripped more than 2.5 gallons of fat from their bodies, which produced nearly two gallons of fuel - abundant to go 9 miles.

Circumnavigating the world - a 27,600-mile journey - is the final maritime challenge, and Bethune hopes to do it in 65 days. Using human fat is a gimmick to garner headlines; the 78-foot-long Earthrace is fueled entirely with biodiesel and Bethune says it emits 78 percent less pollution than conventional diesel vessels.

“The
vision of a world using fuel produced from sustainable sources is an
view whose date has come,” he said. “By demonstrating the capability, reliability and
environmental safety of biodiesel, Earthrace is committed to
transforming that vision into reality.”

Earthrace is billed as the world’s fastest eco-friendly boat, and Bethune says the team will buy carbon offsets to give the vessel a zero net carbon footprint. Non-toxic wax-based paint, composite materials derived from hemp and lubricants refined from canola oil further improve its eco-friendliness.

The vessel, which displaces 10 tons and is powered by two 540 horsepower Cummins Mercruiser engines, cost nearly $3 million to build. Bethune bought his first boat just 10 years ago and started planning Earthrace four years ago. He and his wife have mortgaged their domestic and sold most of their possessions to raise $650,000 for the project. Another $650,000 in loans and donations, coupled with several corporate sponsorships, helped finance Earthrace.

Craig Loomes Design designed the trimaran around a needle-like wave piercing hull that allows Earthrace to slice through waves - it can be submerged under 21 feet of water while doing so - rather than sailing by them. Loomes and Bethume tested the design with a 22-foot prototype; the full size vessel was built nearly entirely of carbon and kevlar composites by Calibre Boat Builders. interpretation took 14 months and the vessel was launched on Feb. 26, 2006. It

has a top speed of 46 mph and carries 3,000 gallons of fuel, giving it a range of about 2,800 miles. It was designed to resist 50-foot waves and has been tested in 40-feet seas against 90 mph winds.

Bethume worked for many years as an oil exploration engineer in the North Sea and Middle East and says he developed an intense interest in renewable fuels - particularly biodiesel - several years ago after gaining an “appreciation of the limitations of fossil fuels.” He believes Earthrace, which has visited 60 ports around the world in the past year or so, is “a great opportunity to nourish and grow the global biodiesel industry, as well as to advance biodiesel as a genuinely viable alternative to petroleum diesel.”

“Governments have a role to legislate to compose biofuels happen,” Bethune said. “If it were up to market forces, biofuels wouldn’t happen at all.”

Bethume and a crew of as many as five folks plan to set out from Valencia, Spain on March 1. They have set a course roughly following the equator, avoiding the more treacherous southern Pacific crossing that is part of the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race).

Earthrace will sail westward, stopping in the Azores and Puerto Rico before going through the Panama Canal and on to Manzanillo, Mexico and San Diego. From there it will hopscotch across the Pacific, stopping in Hawaii, the Marshall Islands and Palou before stopping in Singapore. The final leg will take the crew from Conchin, India to Oman and through the Suez Canal to Valencia.

The crew plans to sail nearly continually for 65 days at an average of 23 to 29 mph. The current record for circumnavigating the globe is 74 days and 20 hours and 58 minutes, set in 1998 by the British vessel Cable and Wireless Adventurer. whether Earthrace breaks the record, it will be the first moment a record recognized by the Union Internationale Motonautique - the worldly sanctioning body for powerboat records - has been set by an alternative fuel vessel.

Original post by Chuck Squatriglia