From Wales, a box to make biofuel from car fumes

[420inTN]

Source: Reuters

QUEENSFERRY (Reuters) - The world's richest corporations and finest minds spend billions trying to solve the problem of carbon emissions, but three fishing buddies in North Wales believe they have cracked it.

They have developed a box which they say can be fixed underneath a car in place of the exhaust to trap the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming -- including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide -- and emit mostly water vapor.

The captured gases can be processed to create a biofuel using genetically modified algae.

Dubbed "Greenbox", the technology developed by organic chemist Derek Palmer and engineers Ian Houston and John Jones could, they say, be used for cars, buses, lorries and eventually buildings and heavy industry, including power plants.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1847347220070719

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Not sure how well this can be adapted to automobile use, but it definitely looks good for industry.

[flamin lib]

1. Interesting. I don't think it could be commercially viable, i.e.

postive cash flow, as the energy to capture and recycle would obviously be more than returned in the new fuel but it would be one solution to the emissions problem. Catalitic converters aren't postive cash flow, but we have them on all our cars.

[420inTN]

3. new infrastructure would be required

for the containing, shipping, and processing of the greenbox contents. there would also have to be environmental studies to see what would happen if some idiot just decided to dump the contents on the ground or down the drain instead of taking it to a recycling center. ideally, there would be a reclamation station at the gas pump.

i'm not sure how you can capture the gas emissions from the engine without causing combustion back-up and causing more engine inefficiency.

[comtec]

2. I'd think the major problem is the heat of the exhaust

That is they need to cool it down fast to process it I think?
Otherwise, Anything to reduce emissions!
Think of what this can do for big smoke stacks!!!

[420inTN]

4. Yes, if this is true and not a scam/sham

i think that it is far likelier that we will see this in industry before it is common in autos.

[comtec]

5. true enough

If you have seen Mythbusters, you might be familiar with the gas myth episode, where EVER SINGLE ONE of the 'lower gas mileage' products/myths was busted. The one thing that worked perfectly was the chips oil (used fry oil) in the diesel. I'm thinking about mixing my car 3:1 diesel:oil as i have many liters of used oil I have carefully filtered.

Even Top Gear (season one of the current crew like 4 years ago) did a bit where they showed that used fry oil works like a charm, and it's FAR FAR FAR cleaner than diesel when burning in the engine.