EV conversion, but in the meantime

Conversion Kits
1

Hi everyone,

My post count here is relatively low and so has been my activity on other EV forums including my own for the past two months (final exams, work etc.). At the moment, I'm raising money for an EV conversion and driving a dinosaur corpse-fueled 1994 Volvo 940 Estate for commutes requiring automotive travel.

Before I continue, I’d like to give a brief overview of my surroundings. Simply put, my home is a model of 20th Century suburbia. We have an inground pool, a second backyard, multiple cars (of which only one is really fuel efficient)*, our house is much wider than it is tall, we live at least 30 minutes away from most-everything when traveling by car and my municipality’s public transport system is horrendously expensive and inefficient. The automobile has become almost a necessity and I’m doing my best to overcome this.
Once it comes to my job, I only go by car when it rains too much or when both my bicycles have broken down. My first is a Niji marathon bike from the early 80s and my second is a mountain bike converted to electricity thanks to “moi”. (http://www.evalbum.com/1614)
Although I drive very little, I’d like to know if there’s anyway I can make any of the following cars run on some form of bio fuel (that isn’t ethanol) that could save money as well as the environment on a student budget. I work at a restaurant, so I’ve already looked into a vegetable oil conversion before going electric, but none of my family’s cars are equipped with diesel engines.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Patrick Leclerc,

*Cars we have and estimated highway MPG according to fueleconomy.gov:
-1994 Volvo 960 Estate auto. 23mpg
-1994 Volvo 940 Estate auto. 24mpg
-1989 Volvo 760 Turbo Intercooler auto. 19mpg
-1968 Volvo 122s two-door manual 30mpg (data unavailable, this is a rough personal estimate)

2

well , only thing that comes to mind is converting to hydrogen , propane , natural gas , well any compressed gas really .

3

I hate hydrogen… but it’s the greenest of the ones you mentioned. The only thing that puts me off a compressed gas conversion is the fact that the gas is stored at very high pressures in close proximity of the occupants.

Thanks for the tip, I’ll continue my research, hopefully something not too expensive will present itself to me. I’ve also looked into a woodchip conversion, but they seem too inconvenient (long startup time) and bulky looking.

4

hell just put 1/4 inch steel between you and the tanks and its all good.

heheh , but hell ive never seen a propane tank blow up (other then dumbasses on youtube or americas funniest videos) with out stupidity at play .

good luck with the woodchips , dont get splinters! it burns.

5

Thanks for your reply, CNG, Propane and Hydrogen conversions seem a little risky to me, then again, I’ve never heard of any accidents resulting from their use.
I think I’ll buy an old Mercedes and convert it to vegetable oil once my family gets rid of one or two of our cars.