A British adventurer who reached Timbuktu in a truck fueled by chocolate has said he now wants to travel to China on a rubbish-powered aircraft.
Andy Pag, 34, and his sidekick John Grimshaw made it back from the remote city in Mali on Jan. 7. The engineer-turned-journalist wasted no time in announcing his next expedition aimed at highlighting the benefits of biofuels.
Pag hopes to drive to China using biofuel, taking flight in every country along the way in a paramotor, or powered paraglider, using an experimental carbon-neutral fuel made from landfill waste.
PHOTO: EPA
"It's a bit like Back to the Future where they put banana skins in at one end to make it fly," said Pag, from Croydon in south London.
"That's science fiction but there is this technology that's a little bit like that. Anything that goes to landfill sites - used tires, wrapping paper, anything you put in your bin at home - can be used to make fuel."
In the 1985 classic film Back to the Future, mad scientist Doctor Emmett Brown fuels the time machine car with banana skins and other garbage before it flies off back to the year 2015.
Pag and Grimshaw reached Timbuktu on Dec. 26 after a 7,200km road trip from the English south coast. The idea was to show that if they could reach the notoriously remote west African city on biofuel, there was no reason it could not be widely used on everyday journeys.
The trip was fuelled by 2,000 liters of biodiesel made from 4,000kg of chocolate - the equivalent of 80,000 chocolate bars. The fuel was made from cocoa butter extracted from waste chocolate.(AFP)
才剛完成以一輛巧克力為動力的卡車抵達廷巴克圖壯舉的一位英國冒險家說，他現在想要駕駛用垃圾為燃料的飛機到中國。
現年三十四歲的安迪．佩格和他的夥伴約翰．格雷姆肖本月七日剛從馬利這處偏僻的城市回來。這位原本是工程師的記者立刻宣布他下一次宣揚生質能源好處的遠征計畫。
佩格希望駕駛動力飛行傘，一路飛越各國到中國，並以掩埋場垃圾製成的實驗性碳中和燃料做為動力飛行傘的動力。
「它有點像《回到未來》電影裡，使用香蕉皮做為時光機飛行的動力來源，」來自倫敦南方柯利頓市的佩格說。
「雖然那是科幻小說的情節，但是生質能源科技也有點類似。任何被丟到掩埋場的東西─使用過的舊輪胎、包裝紙、家中垃圾，都可製成燃料。」
這部一九八五年上映的經典電影《回到未來》中，瘋狂科學家愛默．布朗博士用香蕉皮和其他垃圾作為時光機跑車的燃料，飛回西元二○一五年。
佩格和約翰．格雷姆肖從英格蘭南岸出發，長征了七千兩百公里後，於上個月二十六日抵達廷巴克圖。這項計畫的目的在證明，如果他們能夠靠生質燃料車抵達極偏遠的西非城市的話，那生質能源沒有理由不能廣泛運用在日常旅途。
這趟旅程總共使用了兩千公升生質燃料，該燃料是由四千公斤不要的巧克力（相當於八萬條巧克力棒的份量）所提取出來的可可油製成的。（法新社／翻譯：楊鴻泰）
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