This is the Sloot Motor (sloot meaning "ditch" in Dutch). It is a modified motorcycle which starts with gasoline but uses methane to keep running.
Please, however, don’t get too excited and attempt to immediately modify your own vehicle into a methane-powered one. This fete of engineering is not meant to be a serious alternative motor. This motorcycle only runs at about 20 km (12 miles) with a top speed of about 43 km/h (27 mph). Moreover, in order to fill the fuel tank with methane, you’ll have to harvest the methane yourself from roadside bogs and swamps. It is estimated that the harvesting could take you upwards of 8 hours. In short, this vehicle only runs for a short distance, at a not-so-decent speed, and takes a lot of time to refuel, and manually at that. Why would someone create such an inefficient vehicle?
Gijs Schalkx, the student who created this modified vehicle for his graduation project, says that he created this in hopes that we reconsider our relationship with technologies.
“If this world we live in is the cause for global breakdown, over-extraction of resources and inequality all over the world, why do we keep holding on to this idea of progress by growth? [It is] a goal that we are blindly following without thinking about the consequences and counting on technology to save us.”
Schalkx still takes pride in his invention. Even if one has to spend 8 hours refueling the Sloot Motor, Schalkx describes the ride on the vehicle as “the best 20 kilometers of [one’s] life”, and a “priceless” experience.
(Image Credit: Gijs Schalkx/ Uitsloot)
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(Image Credit: Art EZ University of the Arts via Facebook)