Environmental News, Eco-Friendly Gadgets - FreshAirTimes.eu

Its time to fasten your seat belts and get ready for a much greener drive because some people at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a compact car that capture, stores and eventually recycle carbon from vehicles to prevent the pollutant from finding its way into the atmosphere. This sustainable transportation system uses a liquid fuel and traps the carbon emission in the vehicle for later processing at a fueling station.

The Georgia Tech car can run on conventional petrol or diesel, but has an on-board processor to separate out the hydrogen in the fuel. The hydrogen is used to run the car, as in a fuel cell vehicle, giving zero-emissions operation (the only waste product is water) and the carbon is stored in a liquid solution.

Via: Channel4

To perk up the cruising range of FCHV per charge to 500km, which is on par with that of the gasoline vehicles, Toyota Motor Corp held a lecture titled ‘Development of Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle-Cruising Range’ at EVS23. The company focused on enhancing the fuel tank pressure and improving its fuel efficiency. The pressure in the fuel tank was increased from 35 to 70MPa so that the tank can store about 6kg of fuel, which is 1.9 times that in the existing tank.

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Bic is renowned for manufacturing pens, razors and lighters. And pretty good ones too. But their latest venture is a bit confusing. They are endeavoring to produce disposable cartridges for fuel cells. If the product reaches the market, we would simply need to put in a disposable fuel cell cartridge to charge our computer, iPod or cellphone instead of plugging it. These cartridges are not only supposed to be economical, but they are believed to possess the capability of making a cellphone run for weeks at a stretch.

Sounds good so far. But wait a minute. What happens to the used cartridges? Don’t we all know that used batteries are choking up the environment, being dumped by the millions in landfills, as there is little scope for recycling them? When the whole world is looking for alternatives to batteries, Bic is actually producing a new kind? Moreoevr, Bic has sold more than 100 billion of those pens total, and they sell about 10 million razors and five million lighters every day. Who accounts for them when they are used up to useless plastic?

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