Dutch designer managed to make scrapyard Volvo run on plastic
- A Dutch designer made a scrapyard Volvo run on plastic
- He made a ‘de-refinery’ on the top of the vehicle
- However, some have criticized his project
Published on May 10, 2024 at 7:11 PM (UTC+4)
by Amelia Jean Hershman-Jones
Last updated on May 12, 2024 at 1:57 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Alessandro Renesis
A Dutch designer has managed to make an old Volvo run on plastic.
It simultaneously eliminates household plastic waste and powers a vehicle, talk about the proverbial two birds and one stone.
And who doesn’t have plenty of plastic sitting in their household recycling bin?
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Gijs Schalkx is a designer who had the idea to retrofit a scrapyard car to enable it to use a readily available alternative fuel, plastic waste.
But you don’t just pop used milk bottles in the tank, these everyday items are turned back into oil first.
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Schalkx dubbed the project: ‘The Plastic Car (Is Made of Metal)’.
The car in question is a clapped-out diesel Volvo 245 that he sourced from a German scrapyard.
Once the car was in place, Schalkx first repaired it to a road-legal condition.
Next, he fitted a ‘de-refinery’ on the roof complete with a reactor.
Plastic was put in the reactor and then heated in an oxygen-free environment.
It then evaporates into gas before being condensed into an oil-based fuel.
This fuel is filtered down a tube into a tank at the back of the car.
From there the car can use it as a power source.
And it worked, allowing Schalkx to drive the car for six months.
With sustainability in mind, he used only his own household waste to produce fuel – which set limits on how far he could go, Schalkx told Dezeen magazine.
To put the results into context: the Volvo 245 consumes one kilogram of plastic per seven kilometers.
It takes the refinery just over an hour to produce 12 liters of fuel.
Per Dezeen, Schalkx admitted that the car was ‘very inefficient’ because it could only cover 100 kilometers per month.
However, he claims that honesty was one of his major objectives.
While some questioned and criticized the burning of plastic in an apparent quest to be more sustainable and kinder to the environment, Schalkx clapped back.
He questioned what car manufacturers constituted as ‘sustainable design’, with his project focused on reusing and repairing available commodities instead, by increasing consumer knowledge of how things work.
On a far bigger scale,this futuristic NASA spacecraft could be powered by the sun in what’s considered a huge breakthrough.
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All Supercar Blondie contributors undergo editorial review and fact-checking to ensure accuracy and authority in automotive journalism. After gaining her BA Hons in French and English at the University of Nottingham, Amelia embarked on a vocational diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). This led to numerous opportunities, from interning at Vogue to being on the small team that launched Women’s Health magazine in the UK, which was named the PPA Consumer magazine of the year for three years running. As Health, Beauty and Fitness editor, Amelia personally received a Johnson & Johnson Award and was shortlisted for both PPA and BSME titles. Since then, Amelia has created content for numerous titles and brands, including the Telegraph, 111 Skin, Waitrose, Red magazine, Stylist, and Elle, as well as being Head of Content at Vitality and Editor in Chief at INLondon magazine. “My superpower is translating technical jargon about the mechanical workings of a supercar into a relatable story you’ll want to share with your friends after you’ve read it.” After joining the SB Media family as a senior journalist in September of 2023, Amelia’s role has evolved to see her heading up the SEO output of the editorial team. From researching the most ‘Google-able’ key terms to producing evergreen content - it’s been a time of hard work, growth, and success for the editorial team and the Supercar Blondie website. “I like to think of myself as a ‘method journalist’. In other words: I live and breathe whatever I am writing about. When writing about fitness, I trained as a personal trainer, and as a beauty editor, I completed an ‘expert’ in scent diploma with the Fragrance Foundation. “During my tenure at Supercar Blondie, however, I did something I never thought possible: I passed my driving test at the age of 36. One day I’d love to train as a mechanic to better understand what happens under the hood, too. “My sweet spot is providing readers with a ‘takeaway’ (read: something new they didn’t know before) after reading every one of my stories. While I don’t claim to be an expert in the automotive world, I know the experts and bodies in the field to rely on to provide our readers with an informative and thought-provoking story every time they visit the site.”
