ENGR 103 - Spring 2014
Freshman Engineering Design Lab
“Reducing Automotive Air Pollution”
Project Design Proposal
Date Submitted: April 17, 2014
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Group Members: Elena Nasto, en342@drexel.edu
Soumya S. Iyer, ssi25@drexel.edu
Sherika Gordon, sag336@drexel.edu
Josue Manjarrez, jdm377@drexel.edu
Abstract:
Global Warming is happening now and it is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. According to the EPA, CO2 accounted for about 82% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, particularly from motor vehicles [11.] Air pollution from cars and trucks are harmful to human health because poor air quality increases respiratory illnesses such as asthma as well as overburdens the health care system with considerable medical costs. Therefore, the motivation behind this project is that if vehicle pollutants are reduced, then air quality can be significantly enhanced and public health will be improved. Additionally, a considerable amount of health care costs will be saved and importantly, there will be a decrease in Earth’s global average temperature. Hence, the primary goal of this project is to design a mechanism that can convert the harmful greenhouses gases (particularly CO2) released from cars to cleaner gas: oxygen, which is very essential to human life. This design will be a physical prototype that consists of two parts. First, a miniature greenhouse which will host English Ivy plants in a glass material, and second is the greenhouse gas mechanism that will connect a portion of the muffler of a toy Jeep Wrangler to the mini greenhouse via a tube. The technical challenges and major tasks that one expects to face with this design are simulating the greenhouse gas mechanism in 3D, and designing the experiment in such a way so as to determine the amount of CO2 that is absorbed by the plant as well as the amount of O2 released in a given time. In spite of the expected challenges, computer models of the parts will be designed, tested and modified accordingly to ensure a complete successful design of the project. With that said, the final deliverable will be the physical prototype of the automotive greenhouse device.
