MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, September 6, 2009 7:11 am

Cliff Ricketts looks under the hood of his plug-in hybrid research vehicle, a 2007 Toyota Prius. He has worked to develop an alternative to gasoline for motor vehicles since the late 1970s. TMP/M. Willard

In many ways Cliff Ricketts is before his time.

He’s worked on the future of alternative fuels since before the term “alternative fuels” was invented.

He’s worked to develop an alternative to gasoline for motor vehicles because of what he sees as an overdependence on foreign oil since Jimmy Carter was president.

“I started this because of the Ayatollah,” Ricketts explained, referencing the Iran Hostage Crisis of the late 70s. “I guess I’d watched too many Rambo movies, because I wanted to jump on my white horse and save the day.”

Today, his white horse has changed into a white Toyota Prius that is fueled almost entirely by the most alternative, and sustainable, of fuels – corn and the sun.

The professor of agricultural education at MTSU has taken a few missteps on his road to energy independence (including a homemade hydrogen bomb) but he’s seen success in the most unlikely of places, a run-down garage across from the livestock barn on MTSU’s campus, which now has its own hydrogen production and refueling station that’s powered with solar energy.

“I’ve tested some stuff I’m embarrassed to admit I tested,” he said.

In the late 70s, Ricketts started the journey to green success with ethnanol and methane.

“I’m not enough of a chemist. I thought if you could run a car on methane, you could run it on hydrogen,” he said.

Other researchers laughed at his theories and told him hydrogen would never work as a fuel source. But that didn’t stop Ricketts.

Using a cathode, he created hydrogen with regular tap water, which he stored in a balloon and used a plywood bellows to create enough pressure to force the gas into a car. In 1988, the car ran for two minutes, he said.

It was at this point, he decided his ideas had gotten dangerous and that he may have created a hydrogen bomb.

“I had to go back to the drawing board,” he said.

He did, and three years later a car built by Ricketts and MTSU students broke the land speed record for hydrogen-powered vehicles by topping out at 108.4 mph.

“Since then we left hydrogen for a while,” Ricketts said.

He’s built three alternative fuel – a soybean diesel-powered, a natural gas-powered and an ethanol-powered – Corvettes, two of which will be on display at the Green Energy Expo at the Tennessee State Fair this week.

His research into hybrid vehicles came about three years ago when Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Murfreesboro) asked him to testify before the House Science Committee’s Energy Subcommittee.

He thought he didn’t know enough about the subject until he remembered running a 1974 Ford Mustang off hydrogen, gas and propane in 1991.

“I would go and plug it in,” he said about recharging the batteries on the multi-fuel vehicle.

He went to Capitol Hill and testified along with five other experts.

“I believe the alleviation of the future U.S. energy crisis lies within plug-in flex fuel hybrid vehicles,” Ricketts told the subcommittee. “At MTSU we are running engines off sun and/or water.”

That’s exactly what he’s doing with the Prius and a “Vaser,” a student-built, solar and hydrogen-powered Chevy Blazer.

“It’s the same concept as the Chevy Volt,” he said, except the SUV runs off hydrogen, not gasoline, to recharge its batteries.

Ricketts said the “Vaser” has a top speed of 120 mph with a 22-horsepower, turbo-charged hydrogen engine combined with an electric engine that’s powered by 26 motorcycle batteries.

Unlike other solar-powered vehicles, the solar power doesn’t come from panels on the vehicle. Ricketts said that’s flashy, but not practical. Instead, it is generated by a solar array installed behind his garage on campus.

“I’m doing the same thing with this solar system that a hydro-dam, a coal plant or a nuclear plant does,” he said. He’s creating electricity that powers the garage and in turn recharges the batteries on the Prius and the other plug-in hybrid vehicles he’s built.

Even with 30 years experience under his belt, Ricketts is just teaching his first class on alternative fuels this year.

“I teach those who are going to be future agriculture teachers,” Ricketts said.

Now he’s teaching about the future of energy use in America and working to break the nation’s addiction to foreign oil.

With his years of research into solar-charged batteries and ethanol, his plug-in Prius can run 444 miles on one gallon of E85 gas, using gasoline for only 49 miles.

“I started this because of the Ayatollah and the hostages,” he said. “At the worst case scenario, I ran only 11 percent of the tank off of foreign oil.”

With that, he hopes to move the nation along the road to energy independence.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.