ChemCar (Germany) and Chem-E-Car (USA, Australia). We built two vehicles under the watchful eye of our science group tutor, Michał Tylman DSc (Eng.). The team consisted of nine students from our faculty and their tutor, Konrad Gładyszewski MSc (Eng.).
ChemCar Aachen (13-14 September 2016) – 2nd place in the general classification and the most exact passage in the 11-year history of the competition.
Team: Paulina Pędziwiatr - team leader, Kamil Brocki, Jakub Kuberski, Kinga Mikołajczyk, Filip Mikołajczyk, Dawid Zawadzki, Agnieszka Bedka.
Pressurised Chemcar
The vehicle comprises a base with wheels, while the installation is made up of two containers and the reactor. One of the containers is for hydrogen peroxide storage, while the other contains an afterburner of H2O2 in post-reaction gases. There is a catalyst made from a silver mesh inside the reactor. Steam and oxygen are transported through a Teflon tube to the three-piston steam engine. The engine is connected with the wheel shaft by a three-level gear.
Operating principle: decomposing hydrogen peroxide generates a large quantity of gas, which causes pressure in the system to increase and thus powers the steam engine.
Stopping mechanism: the vehicle stops when pressure falls below 0.1 bar
Report from the competition:
The historic city of Aachen once again became a capital for students’ technological ideas. Seven teams from Germany and Poland had to cover the drawn distance of 15 meters, with the vehicle weight being increased by 30%. In the passages the SSA Oktan outclassed its competitors; our Chemcar covered a distance of 15.05 m, and 15.04 m in the second approach. In the 11-year history of the Chemcar competition this is the first instance of such accuracy and repeatability. In the general classification, which combined marks for innovation, the poster session, and passage, Oktan’s Chemcar came second. During the conference we had an opportunity to talk with the representatives of various industrial concerns, such as Bayer, BASF and Evonik. We visited not only Aachen, but also nearby Cologne. We established many contacts with students from Dortmund and Aachen. We would like to take the opportunity to extend our thanks to the moderator of the competition – professor Andrzej Górak, a renowned facilitator of scientific cooperation between Poland and our western neighbours.
A film summarising the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Evfk3YEfrs
