Gizmodo Australia » diesel

Fit For Jeff Bridges: BMW’s Vision Efficient Dynamics Hybrid Concept

Jack Loftus — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Jalopnik is right. This see-through concept out of the BMW R&D wing would be best served with a side of Tron and a couple of light cycles.

The video above is the official promo for the concept vehicle, which will, sadly, never see a showroom. For more, see Jalopnik, which has up a gallery and oodles of facts and figures. [Jalopnik]

Diesel Spawns a Two-Faced Freak of Nature Watch

Mark Wilson — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Apparently, half a watch plus half a watch equals one ugly watch.

The Diesel DZ4160 “Freak of Nature” watch combines a steel-strapped, oval case watch with a leather-strapped, square case watch. The result is a metal/animal skin hybrid that’s not quite as stylish as either elite substance is on its own. Then again, Frankenstein’s monster was no looker, except maybe when he starred in Raging Bull. [Watchismo via boingboing]

Diesel DZ9044 Watch Doesn’t Need a Face To Tell The Time

Sean Fallon — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:40:00 +0000

First there was too many faces, and now diesel has done a 180 with a watch with no faces at all. What’s next? Putting the clock on the back of the watch?

Inexplicably, clocks for four time zones are embedded into the side of the Diesel DZ9044. So, you would need to twist the face or stick your arm straight out in order to tell the time. Let me just say that you might want to keep your arm down while doing that. A man doing a Nazi salute in public might be frowned upon. [Watchismo via Technabob]

X-Ray Coffee Table Reveals a Hidden Life That’s Cooler than Your Real Life

Mark Wilson — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:30:00 +0000

According to Diesel, your coffee table is obscuring a series of turntables used for your closet DJing habit. In reality, that fossilized trilobite-esque table up top may be more your speed. [Diesel via MoCo Loco]

BioBot Makes Bio Diesel at Home!

Mark Wilson — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:45:00 +0000

You would think that making your own Bio Diesel at home would be a tough, multi-stepped procedure that has a few dangerous spots to misstep. Well before the BioBot, a system that makes Bio Diesel from old cooking oil, you would have been right. Unfortunately, after the BioBot, you would have been right, too. Here is their simple, 8+ step process to make gas at home. And don’t worry, that chemistry beaker is just for show!

Needless to say, we’re being more than a little hard on the BioBot. In reality, it’s a geek-worthy device that can produce almost 20 gallons of gas per cycle. But unless you work at a french fry factory and have a BS in biochemistry, it’s probably worth leaving this method to the pros.

If you’re still interested, the BioBot runs $US5000 and is said to pay for itself in two years. [BioBot via New Launches]

Free-Piston Engines Are Ultra-Efficient, Could Replace Gas and Diesel

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:30:32 +0000

As we move towards battery and hydrogen cell breakthroughs that could wean us off our addiction to oil, here’s at least one engine design from yesteryear that ought to be examined a bit more. The free-piston engine, first invented in 1920, are cheap to build and roughly twice as efficient as current gas engines.

Unlike its conventional counterpart, free-piston engines don’t have a mechanical connect between the piston and a crankshaft. Instead, magnets at the centre of the piston’s rod move past metal coils to create an electrical current. The engine’s configuration allows it to combust fuel quicker, improving efficiency, emissions and easily optimised for different fuels.

The bad news: they’re hard to control (variations in combustion cycles can cause poor performance) and they’re incredibly loud (the quick explosions need to be muffled somehow). But automakers, such as GM and Volvo, are already investigating putting the engines in future vehicles. Lets hope their forays into this don’t take as long as their exploration of fuel cell options. [Technology Review via Treehugger]

Five-Faced Diesel Watch: Screw You Midwestern States

Sean Fallon — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 19:00:00 +0000

So what if you don’t live in the same time zone as New York, LA, Tokyo, Paris or London? Well, that means this Diesel Timepiece would be nothing more to you than a gaudy way to buff up your watch arm. Fortunately, a thinner, daintier version exists for those wishing to forgo the pre-ordained cities for five choices of your own. All you have to do is remember which one is which. Available for US$550 and US$495 respectively.

[Diesel via Technabob via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Fuel Checker Gizmo Warns if You’re About to Screw Up Your Engine

Kit Eaton — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:22:00 +0000

Pumping gas into a diesel engine, or vice versa, is a big no-no that may well screw up your engine. We all know that, don’t we? But for those, uh, “fuel-type challenged” people out there that get it wrong, there’s this new Fuel Checker gizmo. You install it inside your filler flap, and touch the pump nozzle to it before filling up: it’ll check the type and flash green for go, and red for no. No idea how it works, but it comes in gasoline or diesel versions. Or you could, you know… read the label on the pump and double check the colour of the nozzle you’re holding, and save yourself US$40.

AU: Seriously? I drive a diesel, and I’ve never ever ever come close to putting unleaded in the tank. Is this a common occurrence?

[Red Ferret]

Diesel LED Watches Have Hidden Mirror Displays for Sci-Fi Chic

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:15:00 +0000

Ah, a digital watch with an LED display that’s not impossible to read… fantastic! Even better, the LEDs on these new watches from Diesel are a dot-matrix screen, and are hidden behind a mirror surface that makes the whole package look suitably sci-fi. Like something Luke would’ve worn on his cybernetic wrist. You can even program the display to scroll messages up to 20 characters long. Having “Use the Force…” scrolling past is too much, you think? Available with a mirrored patent strap (DZ7091) or a black leather one (DZ7092) for US$170. [Diesel via Technabob]

Gasoline Grows On Trees

Mark Wilson — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:50:00 +0000

Apparently scientists (and some of our readers, surely) have known that we can grow oil for years, and not in the grow-corn-make-oil kind of way. The Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii can be tapped (ala maple syrup) for a natural diesel fuel that requires only simple filtering before being poured into a truck. (This picture is of the tree’s cells.) The catch? The diesel only has a shelf-life of about 3 months.

So how many trees would it take to match the oil output of, say, Saudi Arabia? Check our stats after the jump.

Saudi Arabia Oil Output Daily
11 Million Barrels

Output of One Acre of Copaifera langsdorfii Yearly
25 Barrels

Number of Acres Needed To Match Saudi Arabia Yearly Output
182,500,000 (Total Trees: 18,250,000,000)

Number of Acres in North America Alone
6,050,697,738

Number of Acres in North America Used For Corn (2007)
90.5 million

Amount of American Corn Spent on Ethanol
15% and growing

Frequency Corn Needs Replanting
Every Season

Frequency Copaifera langsdorfii Needs Replanting
Every 90 Seasons

*It should be noted that oil barrels and diesel barrels are not a precise 1:1 ratio.

Some interesting metrics to think about. On a worldwide scale, it doesn’t seem all that impossible to alleviate oil shortages with plants…and the natural carbon offsets seem worthwhile. It’s just too bad these trees take 15-20 years to mature (by which time we plan on flying around in a hydrogen Jetsonmobile).

Is anyone out there a specialist on the topic who could enlighten us in the comments? [abc via treehugger]

Additional Sources: [world factbook] [nass] [yahoo] [popular mechanics]