INTRODUCTION:
Global Warming is happening now and it is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to the EPA, carbon dioxide accounted for about 82% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, particularly from motor vehicles. 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.
To improve these conditions, a mechanism will be designed to convert the harmful gases (particularly carbon dioxide) released from cars to cleaner gas, oxygen, which is very essential to human life. This design will have two parts: a compartment where the gases enter and a compartment with the plant, English Ivy, which the gases diffuse into to get converted from carbon dioxide to oxygen via photosynthesis. The design can later be implemented on other vehicles and other machines entirely.
ALLOCATION OF COSTS:
Categories of Cost
|
Materials
|
Amount of the Material
|
Cost per Item
|
Total Cost
|
Mechanism
|
Clear, hard plastic for the final prototype
|
1
|
$0.00 (provided by a team member)
|
$0.00
|
Frame for the final prototype built from hard plastic (built in the machine shop)
|
1
|
$0.00 (provided by a team member)
|
$0.00
| |
3-D hitch for the model jeep (built on the 3-D printer)
|
1
|
$0.00 (provided by the machine shop)
|
$0.00
| |
Plastic container (used to test the transduction mechanism before the final prototype)
|
1
|
$43.00
|
$43.00
| |
Super Epoxy glue
|
2
|
$13.99
|
$27.98
| |
Experiment
|
Bicarbonate indicator solution (used to test the amount of carbon dioxide present when plants are exposed to the car exhaust): potassium chloride, thymol blue cresol red, ethanol, sodium bicarbonate
|
1
|
$0.00 (used the Chemistry department resources to make the solution)
|
$0.00
|
Balloons (acts as the source of carbon dioxide when blown up, for the final presentation)
|
1
|
$2.00
|
$2.00
| |
Carbon dioxide meter (needed to measure the efficiency of the carbon dioxide to oxygen conversions done by the plants; cannot measure the converted carbon dioxide in the experiments or in the final prototype if not present, and cannot analyze any data to indicate the efficiency and the usefulness of the mechanism)
|
2
|
$201.88
|
$403.76
| |
Horticulture
|
English Ivy
|
3
|
$3.33
|
$10.00
|
TOTAL
|
$486.74
|
