According to CNET, scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have devised a system for ‘decarbonsizing‘ hydrocarbon fuels used in vehicles today (gasoline, methanol), separating the carbon from the hydrogen so that only heat, water and nitrogen (which is dealt with by the catalytic converter) are released from the exhaust into the atmosphere. This means no CO2 and perfectly green vehicles using our conventional internal combustion engines.
The report however does not touch the subject of energy: how much is lost in the decarbonizing process and whether this will reduce overall efficiency. Could this be the perfect solution? I remain intrigued.

“The system, developed by Georgia Tech professor Andrei Fedorov, removes the carbon from hydrocarbon fuels before it enters the engine. This means the engine does not emit any CO2 as the vehicle travels.

“The conventional internal combustion engine is a good candidate for this,” Fedorov told Automotive News Europe. “We simply decarbonize the fuel in a reformer before it reaches the engine. This separates the carbon from the hydrogen.”

Technorati Tags: decarbonsizing, hydrocarbon, fuels, gasoline, methanol, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, atmosphere, CO2, green, engine, energy

This entry was posted on July 8th, 2008 at 14:20 (GMT) and is filed under Carbon capture, Emissions Reductions, Energy . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.