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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Juan Carlos Pino says charcoal-conversion 'the best option we have' [www.cbc.ca]

Juan Carlos Pino, a Cuban mechanic with an eighth-grade education, may have found a way to outsmart the U.S. oil blockade.

Employing the kind of ingenuity many Cubans have developed over decades of U.S. ‌sanctions, Pino, 56, modified his 1980 Polish-built Fiat Polski to run on charcoal, a cheaper and more abundant fuel than gasoline since Washington cut off oil shipments to the Caribbean island in January.

[...] "In a crisis like this, ⁠it's the best option we have," said Pino, who wants to ‌modify a tractor next. "We need mobility, we need to be able to plant crops."

Pino built his device entirely from scrap and repurposed items. The charcoal burns inside a converted propane tank that is sealed shut with the lid of a transformer. A filter is made from a stainless steel milk jug stuffed with old ⁠clothes.

[...] Enter the inventor. Pino once created a machine, built from a motorcycle, to milk three cows at a time. He said he'd been contemplating the charcoal-fired automobile for several years, inspired at first by his late uncle. Pino also ​credited open-source technology promoted by Edmundo Ramos, an Argentine innovator behind DriveOnWaste.com.

[...] He said just about any engine can be converted to run on charcoal by drawing ⁠hot gas ⁠instead of gasoline into the carburetor.

Pino rolled out the charcoal-powered Polski on March 4. In one early test run, the car completed an 85-kilometre trip, reaching a top ​speed of 70 km/h.

[...] Cruz knows something about Cuban jury-rigging. He drives a 1953 Pontiac that runs on a 1940s Perkins engine with a Mercedes transmission, a steering system from the Czech group AVIA, and a differential made by the East German company ⁠Ifa.

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