Greenbox Could Reduce Automotive Emissions

Ever since that whole An Inconvenient Truth movie, it seems like everyone who is anyone is into the environment. I’ve heard about some new reality show with Ed Begley Jr. from St. Elsewhere and Bill Nye the Science Guy where they develop more environmentally friendly, cost-effective homes. Why it’s almost enough to get Ralph Nader elected. Oh, if only.

All environmentalists are united that one of the greatest threats to planet Earth lies in the common automobile. A normal car produces an unsettling amount of carbon emissions that pollute more and more each year. Unless some new kind of alternative energy is used, this will continue to get worse.

Right now, scientists are considering the Greenbox, a device that is about the size of a barstool that is designed to fit into a normal automobile’s muffler area. In this convenient locale, it can trap up to ninety-five percent of all toxic greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Once it traps them, the device somehow filters out the toxic chemicals and emit mostly water vapor.

The next logical step to is to take the full Greenbox to a place where all the toxic chemicals can be safely stored away. The plan is that most of these storage areas will be found at a local gas or petrol station. That way, drivers can simply empty out their Greenbox conveniently, as they fuel up their vehicle.

Once the Greenbox contents are emptied out, an algae bioreactor uses those captured emissions and feeds them into genetically modified algae. This algae is crushed and then distilled to produce biodiesel at a biofuel processing plant.

For those who don’t know what biofuels are, they are fuels created from natural products like oils. In other words, the Greenbox process allows recycling of at least some fuel for later use.

Ironically, this discovery was not intended to be used on automobiles at all. It all began when an organic chemist Derek Palmer along with engineers Ian Houston and John Jones experimented with carbon dioxide to help boost algae growth for fish farming.

So far, in more than 130 tests carried out over two years, and there is a clear reduction of emissions. They have also discovered that 10 facilities would have to be built in order to handle the auto emissions of Great Britain alone.

The three inventors, who since founded the company Maes Anturio Limited, or Field Adventure (translated from the Welsh), have been very secretive as far as how the Greenbox actually works. This is not surprising, since a discovery like this could easily change the automotive world.