Mechabolic

This year Burning Man participants will encounter a 120-foot long slug crawling across the desert floor, spewing columns of fire and ingesting garbage. Named Mechabolic, this monstrosity has been created by a team from Berkeley, California to demonstrate a novel way of creating energy: gasification. As it slowly moves across the dust of the playa, participants will be encouraged to dump anything that burns into its intake. The material is burned in a special chamber that restricts oxygen flow, with only three simple byproducts: water, inert fixed carbon and hydrogen gas. The hydrogen gas is then fed into an internal combustion engine, which powers the machine. The water drips out the tailpipe, and the carbon can be turned back into the soil. This giant art car is actually carbon-negative. The principles can be applied to any vehicle with a carburetor, without modifications to the engine. "This thing can run on coffee grounds," laughs Price.

See Catalyst magazine article