How Many Apples to the Gallon Do You Get? - June 22nd, 2007

We didn’t run across this little tidbit until it popped up on AutoBlogGreen today. It seems the original story is from back in February but this one was too sweet to pass up.

Henry Hobson makes cider in the UK. To make his cider he has to grow apples. Henry got concerned that the apples decomposing in his orchard were producing too much methane. What’s an environmentally conscious apple farmer to do?

Why convert his Jaguar XJ6 to run off the methane, of course. That’s right, Hobson’s Jag gets about 28 mpg essentially on rotten apples. (He has ten thousand trees after all.)

Once Hobson got going, however, he saw a lot of potential in that methane and now uses it to produce electricity and hot water as well. About half his crop goes for fuel.

Hobson figures he drives about 25,000 miles a year and is saving a little better than 2,000 British pounds annually.

Overall, he spent 25,000 getting his methane system in place but in the end he has a home, farm, and automobile that are pretty much self-sufficient in terms of energy use.

Now granted, this Johnny Appleseed approach to fuel efficiency and environmentalism won’t work for the Average Joe, but you have to admire the man’s inventive streak. He’s certainly illustrated that with a little imagination, there are all kinds of alternative fuels out there.

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