For release: March 7, 2013
News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616, 615-785-1196 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MTSU alternative
fuels expert contact: Dr. Cliff Ricketts, 615-308-7605 (cell) or Cliff.Ricketts@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO, Tenn.
— As a Middle Tennessee State
University alternative fuels researcher, Dr. Cliff Ricketts believes he stands
on the edge of history.
On Saturday,
March 9, Ricketts will begin a five-day, 2,600-mile journey to drive
coast-to-coast using no gas.
How can he do
it? After driving across the country in March 2012 and needing only 2.15
gallons of gas, Ricketts has the solution: His fuel sources for the 1994 Toyota
Tercel and 2005 Toyota Prius will be hydrogen from water separated by sun
(solar), all produced on the MTSU campus in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
“We’re showing
how America could be energy independent if the need arises,” Ricketts said. “We
don’t need any foreign oil. … What we achieved last year was less pollution and
less dependent on foreign oil.”
“Hydrogen can
be made from natural gas,” he added. “Our hydrogen comes from water. With
hydrogen, everything’s natural. The solar is all natural and it’s sustaining.”
Ricketts’ trip
comes at a time when gas prices rose significantly in February, passing $5 a
gallon for regular in several states. As of March 7, AAA said the national
average was $3.72 for a gallon of regular gas.
The journey —
or “expedition” as he refers to it — will begin March 9 on the beach at Tybee
Island, Ga., near Savannah. It is scheduled to end Thursday, March 14, on the
shores of the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach, Calif., one of the states where gas
has exceeded $5 a gallon.
“If you were to
ask me which is more significant to mankind, putting a man on the moon or
driving coast to coast in five days with the sun and hydrogen from water as the
only fuel sources, I believe the latter is more significant. … This has
environmental implications, economic implications and world peace
implications.”
Starting
Monday, March 11, most of the route Ricketts and backup driver Terry Young of Woodbury,
Tenn., will be navigating travels across Interstate 40 through Tennessee,
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
If all systems
are working properly with the two primary vehicles, Ricketts said he plans to
refuel them overnight. The group is carrying hydrogen with them because it is
not available everywhere.
Senior Arad
Alexander of Houston, Texas, will be part of the travel team. He was in
Ricketts’ alternative fuels class last fall. Alexander’s group’s class project
involved turning a donated old golf cart into a solar electric vehicle.
In addition to
Young, a hydrogen expert, and Alexander, other crewmembers include Travis Owen
of Woodbury, Mike Sims of Jackson, Mich., and Paul Ricketts of Versailles, Ky.,
Cliff Ricketts’ youngest son. Owen, who attended MTSU, is a student at the
Tennessee Technology Center at Murfreesboro. Several of Ricketts’ former
students, who were involved with his years of research, also plan to
participate.
In 2012,
Ricketts and Young combined to drive 1,700 miles using 95 percent ethanol (43
gallons of E95) and 5 percent gas. The remaining 900 miles was driven using
hydrogen from water separated by sun (solar), all produced at MTSU.
On Nov. 1,
2010, Ricketts drove the Tercel, nicknamed “Forces of Nature,” approximately
500 miles from Bristol, Va., to West Memphis, Ark., fueled by solar and hydrogen
from water, all produced on campus.
Ricketts, a
native of Mt. Juliet, Tenn., has spent 37 years in higher education, including
35 in alternative fuels research. He teaches a variety of agriculture classes
for the MTSU School of Agribusiness and Agriscience in the College of Basic and
Applied Sciences.
In 2006,
Ricketts was asked to testify before the 109th U.S. Congress’
Committee on Science and Energy regarding multi-fuel plug-in hybrids.
Brentwood,
Tenn.-based Tractor Supply Company, the MTSU Office of Research and Louisville,
Ky.-based Farm Credit Services of Mid-America are the primary sources of
Ricketts’ 2012-13 funding.
###
For more
information about Ricketts’ 2013 trip or to interview Dr. Ricketts, please
contact Randy Weiler by calling 615-898-5616 (office) or 615-785-1196 (cell), by
email (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu) or follow
the coast-to-coast journey on Twitter (@WeilerRandy).
Photo captions
A PowerPoint
image that became a large poster MTSU alternative fuels researcher Dr. Cliff
Ricketts is using to share with groups at meetings and conventions shows both
the route for this year's 2,600-mile coast-to-coast trip using no gas and the
method for how he can achieve it. (Image by Karen Nunley and submitted by Dr.
Cliff Ricketts)
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www.MTSUNews.com.
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