A car that can run on beef liver and hydrogen peroxide? How about baking soda and vinegar?
Some chemical engineering students built cars that do just that for the “Chem-E-Car'' competition at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ annual meeting.
Students had a simple assignment - build a car running on a chemical reaction that can carry water and stop after a certain distance.
The only catch was they didn't know how much water or how far their cars would be traveling until just hours before the competition.
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Chem-E-Car
These vehicles could be the car of the future.
 
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All of the vehicle's parts have to fit in a container about the size of a shoebox when disassembled, and the entire vehicle can’t cost more than $1,000.
It might sound like a game, but for many here, it's serious business.
"For these students to learn how a chemical reaction can be used to power vehicles is actually important to our country because a lot of petroleum that we import into our country fuels cars," Bill Byers of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers said.
Some alternatives to gas ranged from reliable sources like hydrogen fuel cells; then there was the one that ran on beef liver and hydrogen peroxide.
