Waste2Race: The sewage-powered car on track to make history
Monday 14th October 2024
Waste2Race: The sewage-powered car on track to make history
Engineers and students at WMG at The University of Warwick are working on a hydrogen-powered car fuelled by sewage, in a project entitled Waste2Race.
The hydrogen is a byproduct of water treatment technology, from Wastewater Fuels, being trialled at Severn Trent Water, and with it the team at the University are hoping to break records for hydrogen fuelled cars.
The Waste2Race Le Mans Prototype class 3 car (LMP3) has been built by Ginetta cars in Leeds from a selection of spare and unused parts that were due for scrap. Some parts have been adapted with sustainable materials including a wing mirror from beetroot waste (cellucomp); a steering wheel courtesy of the National Composites Centre (NCC) made from 100% biosource materials; and a car battery, recovered from a crashed vehicle by ENRG MotorSport.
The project comes as manufacturers such as Alpine and Toyota are exploring hydrogen as a fuel for racing cars of the future. BMW also recently announced plans for its first hydrogen car on sale from 2028.
With the chassis now built, engineers and students have been working to develop the sustainable powertrain. The supercharged V6 engine from Revolution Cars will be converted to run on hydrogen, with bespoke injectors from Clean Air Power, before being fitted to the car. On the front wheels there is hub-motors from Protean which include recycled magnets, and enable energy recovered from braking to be stored in the battery.
Students from the University, working side-by-side with engineers, have had hands-on experience throughout the summer holiday, and gained invaluable skills needed for future careers in motorsports and manufacturing.
The team aim to complete the project in 2025 and use it to showcase a wide range of sustainable concepts that are being developed across the University and in industry. Researchers at WMG will also use Life Cycle Assessment analysis to ensure the car leads the sustainability race as well as breaking speed records.
Head of the Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing Research Group at WMG and Warwick’s Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research), Professor Kerry Kirwan, commented:
“Fifteen years ago we built the WorldF3rst racing car that showed that high performance and sustainability could be achieved together. The Waste2Race platform builds on that pedigree and brings it firmly into today’s arena.
“This sort of collaboration with our local, regional and national partners is a great example of how business, universities and the endless curiosity of our researchers and students, can break barriers and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
“We’re incredibly proud of the ingenuity of the whole team and wish them all the best of luck in their land speed record attempt.”
Richard Walwyn, Head of Asset Intelligence & Innovation at Severn Trent Water said:
“Severn Trent is proud to be supporting Wastewater Fuels with the development of the technology to fuel this exciting project. We have a firm commitment to support technologies that have positive impacts on our environment, from reducing the process emissions at our sites, to developing the circular economy in our region and helping partners like the University of Warwick to realise potentially game-changing new technologies like this.”
Dr Daniel Carlotta-Jones (EngD), Chief Engineer at Wastewater Fuels said: “Recovering value from waste streams is going to be an essential part of any future net zero economy. One of the most important areas to target are wastewaters – something that is constantly being produced by society, industry and agriculture. Chemicals, energy and fuels can be recovered, the latter being what we are focused on producing with our Microbial Electrolysis Cells at Wastewater Fuels. Teaming up with WMG with the Waste2Race car project shows conceptually how we can process our waste streams in better way that can deliver value for everyone.”
The ‘Waste2Race’ project is funded by the Research Innovation Fund from UKRI via Research England.
Find out more about WMG's Sustainable Materials and Manufacturing research here
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