The world’s richest corporations spend billions trying to solve the problem of carbon emissions, but three fishing buddies in Wales, UK, believe they have cracked it.
They have developed a box which can be fixed underneath a car in place of the exhaust to trap the greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – which are blamed for global warming – and emit mostly water vapour.
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 be used for cars, buses and eventually buildings and industries, including power plants. The only emissions they are not sure the box can handle are those from aviation.
“We’ve managed to develop a way to successfully capture a majority of the emissions from the dirtiest motor we could find,” said Palmer, who has consulted for organisations including the World Health Organisation and GlaxoSmithKline.
The three, who stumbled upon the idea while experimenting with carbon dioxide to boost algae growth for fish farming, have set up a company called Maes Anturio Limited, which is Welsh for ‘Field Adventure’.
Although the box the men currently use for demonstration is about the size of a bar stool, they say they can build one small enough to replace a car exhaust that will last for a full tank of petrol.
The crucial aspect of the technology is that the carbon dioxide is captured and held in a secure state, said Houston. Other carbon capture technologies are much more cumbersome or energy-intensive, for example using miles of pipeline to transport the gas.
“The carbon dioxide, held in its safe, inert state, can be handled, transported and released into a controlled environment with ease and a minimal amount of energy required,” said Houston.
More than 130 tests carried out over two years at several testing centres have yielded a capture rate between 85 and 95 per cent.
The men are also in contact with leading car-makers across the world.
If the system takes off, drivers with a Greenbox would replace it when they fill up their cars and it would go to a bioreactor to be emptied.
Through a chemical reaction, the captured gases from the box would be fed to algae, which would then be crushed to produce a bio-oil. This extract can be converted to produce a biodiesel almost identical to normal diesel.
This biodiesel can be fed back into a diesel engine, and the emptied Greenbox can be affixed to the car, restarting the cycle.
The process also yields methane gas and fertiliser, both of which can be captured separately.
The algae required is minimal, and the three inventors estimate that around 10 facilities could handle the carbon dioxide from nearly 30 million cars.
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