Emissions from cars can be used to produce food in the future!!

Shenade Annie Kerketta, Amity University Kolkata

Today, due to the massive increase in population and all sorts of pollution, food production is becoming a growing problem. We, humans, are trying to reverse our harmful doings. We are trying to conserve our resources and recycle waste. This article is going to talk about one of the recycling approaches recently introduced. The proposal is to convert automobile gas emissions to liquid carbon dioxide and water. The recycled water and carbon dioxide will be sent to greenhouses and agricultural industries where fossil fuels are used for production. This way, we are killing two birds with one stone. We are recycling the waste and minimizing pollution. This is not an experiment but a revolutionary proposal that should be experimented with and worked on.

THE MANY BENEFITS OF THIS PROCESS:

• Many projects which are based on the consumption of carbon dioxide can be carried out effectively.
• We will be able to conserve our natural sources.
• The pollution will be reduced considerably.
• The plants in the greenhouses require 450-1200 ppm of carbon dioxide which is higher than present in the air. Those plants can utilize our waste as their surplus of nutrients.
• If this system is applied to all the industries it will be a revolutionary change in pollution control.
• Food production will be higher.
• Even other industries can benefit as they will have a recycled source of energy.

THE STEPS OF THE PROPOSED PROCESS:

This process aims to convert the car exhaust emissions into liquid carbon dioxide and water to feed greenhouses. The process requires equipment that fits the car’s size without disturbing its proportion. The different steps required to carry out this process are:

1. Cooling of the emissions to condense water and deliver remnant gas to adsorption units: the idea here is to use the emitted heat to power an ORC (organic Rankine cycle). The ORC will provide the heating, cooling, and compression required in the following steps. The problem is the construction of such a system with a large surface area relative to driving flow rates. Here mainly water will get condensed.
2. Adsorption- desorption cycle: here, carbon dioxide will be selected from the input stream and nitrogen will be rejected. Materials will be used like impregnated amine functional groups, and zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8). These materials are selective for carbon dioxide thereby serving the purpose. The temperature swing adsorption-desorption method will give promising results.
3. Compression with intercooling: here, the adsorbed carbon dioxide will be compressed and cooled into the liquid phase. The optimum conditions required for this are 25⁰C and 75 bar pressure. The current required and compressor designs for this process are to be evaluated.

For this whole process, the calculations and computations were carried out on PVTSim Nova 4.1. The carbon dioxide adsorbed must be of >96% purity to be converted into liquid.

DISCUSSION:

This proposal aims to convert car emissions to liquid carbon dioxide and water, to primarily produce food.

Car exhaust → cool to condense water→ adsorb all the carbon (>96% carbon must be present)→  compress the carbon into liquid form→  use the produced liquid carbon dioxide and water to feed greenhouses and industries.

This is a revolutionary idea that has a lot of benefits. This idea must be experimented with and researched. The pieces of equipment are all present, it just needs to be put together. This concept has been derived from CIRCULAR ECONOMY. The circular economy is a system that aims for sustainable development by replacing the “end of life” concept. Thermodynamic and exergy analysis states that this idea is feasible after the appropriate optimizations have been completed.  This idea is close to bringing a revolution, hence must be given utmost importance. Researchers and scientists must start working on this approach as it will take us forward in direction of saving the planet.

Also read: Study shows a rise in autoantibodies in severe Covid-19 patients

Reference:

1. Barrufet, M. A., Castell-Perez, E. M., & Moreira, R. G. (2021). Capture of co2 and water while driving for use in the food and agricultural systems. Circular Economy and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00102-4

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