You hardly ever hear anyone say anything bad about oxygen, except maybe sommeliers complaining that the bottle wasn’t completely closed after all. So everyone wants a diesel that emits oxygen. In France they are working on a device that ensures that only oxygen comes out of the exhaust of diesels. This month, the inventor will sit down with Bosch to discuss any future plans.
The French company CIA is responsible for the invention. The device more or less resembles a catalytic converter and will soon be placed in the exhaust line when the invention is ready. The thing is called a Compact Carbon Catcher (CCC). The carbon (the ‘C’ in ‘CO2’) is retained while the oxygen (O2) is released.
How do you convert the exhaust gases of a diesel engine into oxygen?
At idle speed, the CCC can filter all harmful substances from the exhaust gases. At a speed of 3,000 rpm, the device would filter 80 percent of the CO2 from the gases. The emissions of a Ford Ranger dropped (while driving) from 270 to 49 grams. It is not clear how long the CCC will last before it needs to be replaced (or emptied?).
More companies are working on these carbon traps, but often on a larger scale, for example at factories. This Compact Carbon Catcher will soon be small enough to fit on a car. Trucks, boats and generators will soon also be able to lose their gases in the thing.
Making current diesels cleaner
The aim of the French CIA is not to save the diesel engine. Against the French Sud Ouest says the inventor: ‘I met French car manufacturers who explained to me that they have the page on thermal energy [verbrandingsmotoren] had turned and focused solely on electricity. But they haven’t thought of anything between tomorrow and today.’
Diesels will not disappear overnight and until then they will cause a lot of CO2 emissions. There are currently tens of millions of diesel cars in France and then we have other places like Africa and India. They want to make the existing diesel engines sustainable. For the time being, there are no concrete production plans for the CCC.
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