ChemCar and Chem-E-Car are international competitions for students, sponsored by the biggest industrial concerns connected with Chemical and Process Engineering. The aim of the contest is to design and construct a small vehicle powered by a chemical reaction other than combustion and make it cover a distance with a certain load; both these parameters are given on the day of the competition. Innovation, presentation, a poster session, compliance with safety requirements and the accuracy of each passage are all assessed.
These competitions are held during international conferences organised by well-known organisations of chemical and process engineers, such as DECHEMA, AlChE or CHEMECA. The prestige of the competitions is connected not only with the advanced technical level of ideas presented, but also with the fact that they are organised only in several locations in the world.
ChemCar – a competition organised in Germany. The Students Scientific Association Oktan took part in it for the first time in 2013, and since then we have been competing against teams from Germany’s Technical Universities every year.
Chem-E-Car – a competition organised in the USA, Australia, Indonesia and Spain. In 2014, thanks to funding from the Generacja Przyszłości project, we left Europe for the first time, travelling to compete in the USA and Indonesia. In 2016 we took part in the North American competition once again, and in the Australian edition for the first time.
