Climate change is a serious problem in our country.
Specifically, global warming is happening now. To help combat this problem, our
group has designed an open system, carbon dioxide to oxygen transduction device
for air pollution remediation. This filtering device was built to convert
harmful gases (mainly carbon dioxide) released from car mufflers (Jeep
Wrangler) to cleaner gas, oxygen. The transduction device had two compartments
where the first compartment allows the gas to enter, and the second hosts the English
Ivy plants that converts CO2 to O2 via photosynthesis.
This design was conducted over a 10-weeks span where the overall goal was to
make the device 10% efficient by reducing at least 10% of the amount carbon
dioxide that was emitted by the car into the air. Some examples of the technical activities
that were done to ensure a successful completion of the transduction device and
also achievement of the overall goal included:
v
Testing the Efficiency of the CO2 to O2 Conversion
Ø
Calibration of the CO2 sensors needed
to measure the amount of CO2 so as to determine the rate of
photosynthesis from automotive fuels. This calibration was done three times to
improve the accuracy of the CO2 meters.
Ø
Testing the release of CO2 with and
without plants- experimentation
was done to measure air exchange rate for determining the efficiency of English
Ivy to eliminate CO2 from the atmosphere.
Ø
Calculations done to illustrate the amount of CO2 reduce
with the transduction device. This
resulted in 2.65* 10^12 ppm/year or 5.61*10^21 metric tons/year was the amount
of CO2 reduced in a year for all cars in America given travel 5hrs a
week, 52 weeks a year.
Ø
For more detailed information about the design, please see the weekly
updates and technical activities sections of the blog.
Lastly, a final concept idea for a future advanced Transduction
Device was put forth. The
final concept design will still be an open system. The idea is to split the
muffler into two mufflers. At the end of each muffler, a valve system would be
placed as a form of a fail-safe. The valves will make sure that the temperature
and pressure stay ideal because if they do not, some of the gases can become
flammable or even turn into dry ice causing the device to become hazardous. After
the valves' system is opened to allow the fumes to go into the system, the two
mufflers will run through the sides of the car separately. The fumes will go
through the valves' system and into the area where the genetically modified
plants are located, so they can convert the carbon dioxide to oxygen. The
reason that the genetically modified plants are being used is that these plants
will be able to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen at a faster rate and they will
be able to work during intense heat.
