Innovation

If a generation that prides itself on being green is to be

defined by its aggressive pursuit of energy efficiency

and alternative sources of electricity and fuel, then

maybe it's time we ditched the label "waste" and

"garbage."

Is a used diaper, for example, just a ball of stink

destined for a landfill? Or is it a ball of complex

molecules that can be busted apart, reorganized and

turned into useable energy?

Is it waste or watts? Feces or fuel?

Luciano Piciacchia, vice-president of Quebec

operations for global engineering giant AMEC PLC,

is in the diaper-buster camp. He's overseeing the

design of a plant in Quebec that, when finished, aims to turn thousands of tonnes of used diapers each year into a synthetic diesel fuel.

Used diapers are difficult to reuse or recycle, and while cloth diapers are an alternative, it's unlikely they'll ever put a dent in disposable diaper sales.

In Quebec alone, 600 million – or 120,000 tonnes – of used diapers are produced each year, and for the most part they end up in landfills where the plastic that lines them can take 100 years to break down, says Piciacchia.

"A baby, from the time it's born to the time it's toilet trained, will go through a tonne of diapers," he says, adding that the load will increase as aging boomers turn to adult incontinence products.

The technology for turning diapers into diesel, called pyrolysis, is well understood and has been discussed before in this column. Unlike a dirty process such as incineration, by which a substance is just burned, pyrolysis chemically breaks down organic materials, literally cracking their molecules, by heating them up in an oxygen-starved chamber.

Dirty Diapers

This is a technology that has kinda, almost

made it out of the laboratory.

But when you read more about it, you'll wish

it stayed there.

Indian car company Tata Motors (who now own

Jaguar and Land Rover, in a nice reversal on

British colonialism) has been working for years

to develop and market a car that runs on

compressed air. Here's how it works: a tank

full of compressed CO2 sprays out air, driving

a tiny piston engine that turns a crankshaft

and drives the wheels of a small, lightweight

car.

Tata Motors has the license to technology crafted by a French company called MDI, which has been developing compressed air as an alternative fuel since the early 1990s. They've been plagued with numerous setbacks, however, including lawsuits and a failed almost-launch in 2010.

The company said recently that they're closer than ever to getting a compressed air car on India's roads. The good news? No emissions, and obviously, no dependence on fossil fuels. The bad news? It's going to be slow. Like, really, really slow. Expect power and torque to be in the single digits, and for top speeds to be around 30 miles per hour. Its range is extremely limited as well. Maybe Tata's next project will be a car that a human being can't outrun during a brisk jog.

Innovation in the field of fuels has been advanced at much faster rate.

Let's go through some of the latest innovative ideas:-

Compressed Air

Exhaust Resonator

(Explained)

Structure

A typical automotive exhaust resonator is made of a hollow steel cylindrical tube and is attached

to the muffler of an exhaust system. This type of resonator is designed similar to that of an acoustic

resonator, which creates an “exhaust note” that gives the exhaust noise a less annoying and more pleasant tone. The sound can

be enhanced by means of adjusting the exhaust note.

Function

Exhaust resonators are usually add-on features in exhaust systems. They are placed together with the mufflers along the exhaust pipe and work primarily to decrease exhaust noise. The exhaust noise passes through the resonating chamber, which in turn tunes the sound to cause destructive interference in order to be canceled out by the opposite sound waves.

Availability

Being an add-on device, exhaust resonators are provided by aftermarket manufacturers and can be installed on muffler systems of internal combustion systems, such as automobiles and motorcycles. Some vehicles already are equipped with tuned exhaust systems with resonators, thus making the exhaust pipes capable of pulling the combustion products out of the chamber faster with reduced sound. Most aftermarket producers improve the exhaust tuners, as these help the vehicle perform more efficiently.

Advantages

Exhaust resonators provide a wide array of benefits to vehicle owners. Aside from reducing the noise from the engine’s exhaust system, resonators also enhance overall engine performance and smoother driving because more horsepower is yielded without wasting as much fuel. Noise suppression also helps in passing fuel emission tests, as the resonator prevents chassis rattling, an effect that usually leads to contaminated fuel emissions.

Support

Aside from exhaust resonators, catalytic converters also are part of the overall exhaust system to help the muffler perform its function of reducing exhaust noise. However, instead of canceling out each other's sound waves, their effect is to restrict the sound coming out of the exhaust pipe. Catalytic converters work hand in hand with exhaust resonators in reducing and suppressing engine noise, thus allowing the vehicle to achieve optimum engine and driving performance as compared with using mufflers alone.