SANTEE
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With rising gas prices becoming a big concern, Santana High School senior Josh Wesolowski plans to unveil an invention he hopes will hold an answer to the energy riddle.
Debuting next week at the Inventors Showcase in San Diego, the contraption, constructed from an old lawn-mower engine, is a “hybrid” engine that runs on four different types of fuel: gasoline, propane, methanol and hydrogen.
“I built this engine to simply prove a point that it's not difficult to run any engine on many different fuels,” Wesolowski said, noting that anything flammable can be burned in an internal combustion engine.
Wesolowski has dubbed his creation the alternative-fuel engine.
The machine is simplistic in appearance but performs a unique function – alternating between four very different fuel sources with the flip of a switch, all while the motor is running.
Canisters mounted on each side supply the small engine with the fuels through homemade intakes, built with ordinary plumbing valves.
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2008 Inventors Showcase
Where: 1895 Camino Del Rio South, San Diego
When: Public viewing begins at
9 a.m. Thursday. Awards ceremony at 6 p.m.
Admission: Free
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The machine is started with unleaded gas, switched to run on methanol, propane and, finally, hydrogen before being shut off.
Gas is used first because methanol, an alcoholic substance similar to ethanol, lacks the punch needed to heat the engine for a full ignition. Wesolowski will demonstrate that process to the judges at the Inventors Showcase.
“If I win it, I get recognition, and there's a possibility of scholarships,” he said. He said he's planning on a career in engineering, but is also mulling over teaching auto shop.
The project was started more than a year ago as part of an effort by Santana High School auto-shop students to find methods of producing hydrogen fuel. Wesolowski said he loves high-octane muscle cars and is concerned with the fuel consumption of his gas-guzzling 1987 Chevy Camaro, so building a hydrogen-powered engine was the next step.
The lawn-mower motor was donated by Jacob Bagnell, an automotive teacher for 38 years who also taught Wesolowski's father and older brother.
He assisted Wesolowski in bringing his idea to life and said the young inventor worked hard to apply complicated scientific principles to his project.
“As a teacher, that's where I'm proud of him,” Bagnell said.
Wesolowski, 17, got the idea for hydrogen energy in the sixth grade when he learned that magnesium could combust water. Because magnesium is highly volatile and unsafe to work with, Wesolowski and Bagnell substituted a tank of compressed hydrogen instead.
They also used salt water electrolysis, a process of splitting molecules in the water to produce energy, for hydrogen .
Wesolowski said hydrogen fuel, whose only exhaust product is water, may provide U.S. motorists a means of attaining alternative energy for their vehicles without having to do away with the cars they love.
“It's the fuel that makes the most sense,” he said.
Declan Desmond is a freelance writer in La Mesa.
