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The ongoing development of alternative fuel sources must not hinder the innovative use of existing clean energy solutions as a method of battling against climate change and runaway energy costs. Among the various strategies currently being pursued by government and industry, the quest to slash harmful carbon emissions and lower fuel costs has spurred a host of innovations.

One solution that has shown promise is a family of fuel efficiency filters known as ECO Systems, currently manufactured and distributed by DBS Distributors, parent company of ECCO2 (an acronym for Environmental Control of Carbon Dioxide), that was conceived and patented to provide a sensible and cost-effective clean energy solution compared to hybrid systems and alternative fuels, while reducing the world’s dependency on oil. In this article, we focus on the clean energy advantages it provides to users.

Several environmental benefits have been reported, serving to enhance an engine’s power and performance. For example, selected tests have measured the device’s ability to reduce carbon emissions from a vehicle’s motor or other engine to a significant degree. This has motivated ECCO2, which holds the patent on the device, to envision it as a key component of an international carbon offset program. There is an obvious benefit to governments around the globe who might be willing to purchase and incorporate it into their national industry and infrastructure.

A separate benefit appeals not only to government agencies but also to car owners: the device has been measured in numerous road tests to reduce fuel consumption and to produce a corresponding increase in gas mileage. It is hardly necessary to emphasize the appeal of this savings in an era of economic austerity across the globe. The product family is already offered as an option for new and used car buyers in selected markets in the Americas, and ECCO2 has launched a cooperative agreement with Dun & Bradstreet in anticipation of enticing car dealers and transportation service providers to use the technology.

Additional consequences to the use of the device may include a more complete, cleaner burn in an engine’s combustion chamber. A higher vapor-pressure fuel will interact and burn to a greater degree of completeness while generating fewer unburnt byproducts. Furthermore, the device is believed to electrostatically charge certain fuels, including natural gas; this is significant because electrostatically charged fuel mixes with air and burns more efficiently than uncharged fuel, which results in reduced fuel consumption for the same amount of work performed. Also, use of the technology reportedly results in less of a carbon deposit buildup on fuel lines, injectors, exhaust gas recirculation valves, and oxygen sensors. It necessitates less frequent “re-gens” (i.e., regenerations or cleanings) of diesel particulate filters due to fewer particulates emitted, and in general, allows an engine to run more smoothly and at a cooler thermal temperature.

The value of such a technology to carbon-offset programs should be clear, as the following example shows. Using a scenario based on planting enough trees to offset the amount of carbon produced by the entire U.S. government fleet (consisting of a total of 4.1 million vehicles), 2.26 billion trees would need to be planted to achieve this goal. The funds required for these forestation development projects would range from $10 billion to $40 billion, with very unpredictable results. This means that $2,400 to $9,600 would be spent planting trees for every motor vehicle in the country. In contrast, the use of ECCO2 — incorporating costs for parts and labor — could deliver the same amount of carbon offsets for under $5 billion.

A substantial number of road tests over the past ten years have illustrated this clean energy solution. For example, in 2002, the Transportation Technology Program at South Texas Community College undertook a study involving two pickup trucks—a 1995 Chevrolet 1500 and a 1997 Chevrolet S-10 – in whose engines the technology had been incorporated. In the 1995 vehicle, they measured a reduction of hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen of 97.7 percent, 92.5 percent and 40 percent, respectively, while the corresponding numbers for the 1997 vehicle were 94.7 percent, 91 percent and 29 percent.

Two years later, Wallace Environmental Testing Laboratories of Houston initiated a separate study, this time involving four vehicles—a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500, a 1996 GMC Safari, a 2000 Chevrolet 1500, and a 1997 Ford F350. Among the findings, the emission of carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen were found to have been reduced by 2.7 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, in the Dodge Ram; the emission of hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and oxides of nitrogen were reduced by 13.1 percent, 1.4 percent and 4.5 percent in the GMC Safari; hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen were reduced by 4.3 percent and 17.2 percent in the Chevrolet; and hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide were reduced by 9 percent and 2.4 percent in the Ford.

MIDAS of Victoria, Texas, undertook a similar study involving an International Diesel school bus and 1994 and 1995 models of a Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck. For the bus, while idling, output 

of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen was reduced by up to 88 percent respectively. Meanwhile, the 1994 truck’s idling output of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen was cut by 73 percent, 100 percent, and 32 percent, while the corresponding numbers for the 1995 truck were 73 percent, 33 percent and 38 percent.

Transportation personnel at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico installed the technology in two government vehicles used by facility security in hopes of improving gas consumption and performance. After approximately two months of monitoring fuel consumption, a transportation officer communicated that an improvement of approximately 2.9 miles per gallon had been observed for both vehicles. The officer noted that as budgets allowed, the White Sands facility planned on procuring more of the devices for implementation into NASA’s vehicle fleet.

This clean energy solution holds promise as a key tool in the drive to reduce the world’s carbon footprint. If its advantages continue to gain recognition and it is adopted on a widespread scale, the potential results may include a less polluted planet and a less hefty bill for all fuel buyers as well as owners and operators of a wide variety of vehicles, generators and boilers.

Sebastian Thaler is a freelance science and technology writer based in New York City. For more information, visit www.ecco2corp.org.