24 May 2019 _ PopularMechanics.com
HOW YOUR WORLD WORKS
TOWNSHEND’S
WHITE ROSE TEAThe tea is steeped
with sugar, then
strained through a
500-micron filter
to remove tea
leaves, producing
SWEET TEA.Sweet tea ferments
in tanks with 2,000
gallons of symbiotic
culture of bacteria
and yeast, known as
SCOBY, which looks
like a giant phlegm
Frisbee. In 2 to 4
weeks, you get
KOMBUCHA, but it is
too alcoholic to be sold.The kombucha is
heated to 104 degrees,
then passed through a
spinning cone column
(SCC). That removes
ETHANOL (at 12%
to 14% ABV) without
altering flavor, unlike
dilution—which is what
most brands do. The
end product of the
SCC? KOMBUCHA at
0.1% ABV—low enough
to sell.The ethanol is divided
into chilling tanks.
Some tanks are filled
according to the fla-
vor of the original tea.
When 5,000 gallons
are collected, the eth-
anol is passed through
the SCC again to get it
to typical strength for
a spirit, 40% ABV—
in this case, WHITE
ROSE SPIRITS.The rest of the etha-
nol is stored with no
regard to flavor. At
10,000 gallons, it gets
shipped to Pacific
Ethanol in Boardman,
Oregon, where it’s
further fermented
with corn stock, then
distilled to remove
corn and passed
through a molecular
sieve for purification,
yielding PURE ETHA-
NOL. The removed
corn is collected to
be used as CORN
FEEDSTOCK.The ethanol is blended
with gasoline at a
standardized 90:10
ratio, then sent to gas
pumps in Portland.START
GASOLINEFINISH
IF AT FIRST you don’t succeed, try at least 4,999 more
times. That’s what it took to develop Trek and Bontrag-
er’s safest helmet technolog y yet, WaveCel. They built a
fa ke head and neck w ith nine accelerometers to measure
head movement in all six degrees of freedom, and then
they replicated the violence of bike crashes over and over
again. Engineers and a surgeon pored over the tests and made minute changes until they had
integrated the WaveCel technology, a collapsible cellular material made of thermal plastic, into
a free-floating layer of the helmet that redirects rotation and, according to Tony White, engi-
neering supervisor at Trek, can “fold over and compress on itself,” helping it dissipate energy
more effectively. Upshot: It’s 48 times better at preventing concussions than traditional foam
helmets. The material debuts in four new Bontrager helmets, which are available now.Trek’s New Helmet
Is Ready to Save
Yo u r Br a i n
BREW DR., the kombucha brand of Townshend’s Tea Com-
pany of Portland, Oregon, uses a unique method to lower the
fermented tea drink from its natural 1 to 3 percent ABV to
the below 0.5 percent legal limit for nonalcoholic beverages.
Then it uses the by-products to help make gasoline (and other
stuff). Here’s the most interesting beverage production pro-
cess in the country:How to Make
Gasoline from Tea