Could a Modern Auto Be Converted to Run on Rendered Zombie a la Bio-diesel?
In a post-apocalyptic zombie overrun world could generators and automobiles be converted to run on zombie renderings?
Could a Modern Auto Be Converted to Run on Rendered Zombie a la Bio-diesel?
In a post-apocalyptic zombie overrun world could generators and automobiles be converted to run on zombie renderings?
Zombies don’t seem to have much fat on them, and (decaying) meat and bone do not render down to an oil. I don’t think your idea is feasible.
Need answers fast?:eek:
Probably easier to just loot fast food places for oil for Bio-Diesel.
Diesel engines can be easily converted to run on straight fryer grease, so Zombie Grease™ should be no problem. Gasoline engines are another thing, though - their fuel requirements are much more strict.
Although to nitpick a little, converting a newer computer-controlled diesel to run on straight grease, or even refined bio-diesel, is fairly difficult. But if an older mechanical-injection diesel like an old VW Rabbit or Mercedes 240D count as “modern” those could definitely be turned into zombie-greasers pretty easily. Of course as the apocalypse drags on, perhaps car-makers will begin releasing diesels designed to run on a variety of zombie fuel blends (Z10, Z80, etc).
Does it have to be biodiesel?
If zombies are dehydrated perhaps they can be used as fuel for a steam engine?
Sure, it’s been suggested. Cecil on mummies used as locomotive fuel. Mind that he doesn’t say that it wouldn’t work, just that there’s no evidence that it happened.
Fryer grease running cars smell like french fries. I do not want to drive behind the zombie car.
Thermal depolymerization would be one process for converting animal biomass into synthetic fuel—however, the real-world pilot program seems to have folded, from legal and financial problems. :dubious: Plasma conversion might work, too.
I imagine you could burn other zombies to power the synthetic fuel production processes, or possibly just use humans for one or the other, depending on how desperate/evil you are.
Vehicles with turbine engines can burn a wider variety of fuels, as well. Several automobiles have been designed with turbine power, but they’re somewhat rare.
I’ll leave it to others to debate the possibility of merely harnessing the zombies like oxen to propel a cart.
I think the approach that has the best prospects is to use the magic that animates the zombies to power your contraptions. “Classic” zombies that are immortal except for headshots, and zombies in popular media like The Walking Dead, clearly ignore any known laws of physiology. Basically, they are animated by magic, which allows them to do work without needing air or food or blood flow. Perhaps the spell requires brains of the living to continue functioning, which would explain why zombies will try to eat the brains of people, and why when they lose the remnants of their brain they die.
I’ve long held the theory that zombies “killed” by destroying the brain aren’t actually “dead” (or, er, “double-dead”?)—no more than removing the engine of car or the CPU of a computer “destroys” the machine. The zombie’s body, and possibly surviving pieces of it’s brain, are in fact still “alive”—or “animated undead”—but without a brain attached and connected enough to control the body, it simply remains motionless.
And on the nature of zombie animation and energy supply, there’s an entry in one of my miscellaneous reference files from a few years back that I love—apparently from a message board somewhere, but I’ve long lost the source. :smack:
Moderator Action
While there are some factual aspects to this topic (biodiesel, for example) there’s enough non-factual zombie related stuff in here that I think it’s best that we clear the shopping mall out and herd these zombies over to IMHO. This will open the topic up for more braiiiinnnnsssss (or maybe opinions) and still allows the factual aspects to be answered.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.