Shell Eco-Marathon

February 09, 2014

The Shell Energy Lab

The Shell Eco-marathon is Shell's way of encouraging students all over the world to participate in creating ultra fuel efficient vehicles, some winning cars deliver a shocking 2,700km/L efficiency (ethanol). This event inspires young engineers to look for new ways to push the boundaries of fuel economy. For the first time Manila has been selected as one of the 3 host cities for the Eco-marathon, the other two were Rotterdam, Netherlands and Houston, USA. This is line with Pilipinas Shell's Centennial Celebration, they also commissioned a commemorative bill for this centennial celebration. Visitors who want to tour the venue must first register at Luneta Park and get their high tech ID, this will be used to document the visitor's tour of the Eco-marathon which in turn can be viewed at Shell's website. I was pretty amazed by this, there were white squares in the Energy Lab that can be tapped and the ID will store the information for future perusal. The Shell Eco-marathon venue occupied the whole Quirino Grandstand and used half of Roxas Boulevard as race track. Visitors will undergo the mandatory checking of bags for firearms and deadly weapons. By the way, this event was FREE.

Shell's decorative banners were installed at Luneta Park

Shell Eco-marathon

One of the displays around the venue

The race track

Aside from the cute cars breaking the limits of fuel efficiency, there's also this big tent called The Shell Energy Lab wherein visitors can interact with various exhibits that explains something about energy. I was like a child in a science exhibit, ogling my eyes in those interactive displays. Some of this displays explains how to create energy from different sources, some will explain the equivalent energy a person or item exerts to perform something, other displays give you insights on what Shell has contributed to the country. Visitors will also have a chance to create their ideal world based on their decisions on factors that will affect the resources of the planet. After visiting 10 stations and selecting their choices, they can upload this to the large screen at the end of the tent to see how their ideal planet compare to others. I was annoyed by other people who went directly at the uploading area, just to discover that they need to visit 10 stations. This resulted into long lines of people waiting for their turn to upload their planet bacause the Shell attendants were kind enough to let them answer the questions there at the uploading station. 

Informative walls scatterd inside the lab, visitors can tap the white squares for info 

Inside the Shell Energy Lab 

An interactive display to better understand solar energy 

A display to demonstrate gas energy creation 

An electricity conductor, I have high iron in my blood so a finger was all I need to get zapped 

 A comparison of fuel densities

An interactive display on how to harness wave power 

Participants need to jump to contribute energy (in watts) in this fun activity 

This zorb balls measures the energy exerted by participants while running like hamsters

Shell's legacy in the Philippines 

The famous Malampaya Oil Rig 

My choices for my ideal planet 

A made up oil rig 

 A tire for one of those huge Caterpillar trucks

A touch screen table that explains chemistry 

The choices for visitor's ideal planet 

The area where visitors upload their ideal planet 

Planet Alhoudiery 

Mimi posing with her planet 

Instructions on how to replay our gathered informations

Outside the Shell Energy Lab, there were displays of fuel efficient cars used by students from different universities in the Philippines that were able to win a place in previous Eco-marathons. There was also a race track for a salt water car, this is a small adorable plastic car (much like the ones children buy from sari-sari stores and can assembled by connecting the plastic pieces to form the car frame) use salt water as fuel and run like those Tamiya cars that were once popular during my childhood.

The salt water car race track 

A salt water car in action

The salt water car assemby area 

F1 driver outfit

The story of Shell Eco-marathon 

San Lorenzo Ruiz and the outdoor displays

An adorable Eco-marathon car

Further into the park there were other interactive displays like how to maximize the storage space of your car and additional information about Shell fuels. The last exhibit was a Lego assembly area, I was not able to participate because the children fully occupied the area along with their beautiful mommies. Beside the Lego Wonderland was a display of Hyundai's lates hybrid variant of Sonata. Unfortunately, the maintenance area of the eco-cars were off-limits to visitors.

The fuel save challenge

An infographic wall on Shell's contribution to aviation 

The Lego assembly area 

Hyundai Sonata Hybrid

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