PENANG: Imagine being able to fill up your motorcycle every morning with cooking oil.Imagine no more. Now you can do it.
Mechanical engineering students of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) have produced the nation’s first biodiesel motorcycle.
Special bike: Prof Gitano-Briggs watching project participant Goh Chin Yuan, 22, filling up the biodiesel-powered motorcycle with cooking oil.
“Many college projects done abroad have tried this, but most just merge an existing diesel engine to a motorcycle.
“We at USM are doing it the hard way by actually designing a purpose-built biodiesel motorcycle engine,” said Prof Horizon Gitano-Briggs, a USM lecturer and head of the project.
USM has teamed up with state-owned motorcycle producer Modenas and engine manufacturer Yanmar to produce the Biodiesel Jaguh Prototype Vehicle.
The engineering students took nine months to modify the Jaguh using components from a biodiesel-powered engine.
“We also needed to add some extra parts and the total cost of custom-machining the engine only reached RM500,” said Prof Gitano-Briggs.
The prototype has a top speed of 30kph but the students have set 2009 as the deadline to produce a completed commuter motorcycle that can do 80kph and go the distance of 100km per litre of bio-diesel.
“That’s less than two sen per km,” Prof Gitano-Briggs said. - TheStar
Konsep "Universiti Di Dalam Taman" yang diadunkan oleh USM ini menunjukkan hubungan akrab di antara peranan dan fungsinya sebagai institusi pengajian tinggi dalam persekitaran taman yang segar. Unsur flora, fauna, air dan ciptaan-ciptaan lain merupakan hubungan yang dinamik dalam penerokaan kehidupan selanjutnya. Konsep ini mengajak kita untuk mengekalkan kehijauan kampus sebagai sebahagian daripada usaha membangunkan dunia intelek. Kita perlu semarakkan semangat dan amalan dalam menjaga persekitaran kampus, malah terus menyayangi dan menghargai alam semula jadi dan ekologi yang dianugerahkan Tuhan di hati dan pemikiran pada setiap warga kampus.
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