Dear GM, I have had likes from various car sites regarding this idea which I am giving to various car manufacturers: For polluted cities: Put electrostatic precipitators on car roofs and drive through the dirty air. An electrostatic precipitator works as follows: Gas (eg air) is ionized by passing it between two highly charged electrodes. The ions then attach themselves to dispersed particles (dust and so on) in the gas. These particles then migrate towards oppositely charged electrodes and are so collected cleaning the gas. GM could drive such cars through polluted city streets with a notice on saying G(eneral) air M(aintenance) by GM The electrostatic precipitator could also pump clean air into the interior of the car. Another idea is to put a catalysyst on the roof or in the paint that would clean the air (platinum, rhodium, etc). If the roof got hot enough to significantly speed up the chemical reactions to reduce pollution it could clean up the atmosphere a lot. Also see below: In Chemistry by Raymond Chang we read that, A recent technological innovation to combat photochemical smog is to coat automobile radiators and air conditioner compressors with a platinum catalyst. So equipped a running car can purify the air that flows under the hood by converting ozone and carbon monoxide to oxygen and carbon dioxide... A drive on the freeway would help clean up the air! The above information by Chang gives me this idea: The platinum mines could develop a sort of gauze cloth with the catalyst on and it could be draped in polluted streets, perhaps from building to building. Mirrors and parabolic reflectors could be used to reflect sunlight onto the draped cloth to heat it up - the heating speeds up chemical reactions. But what about an ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR ( see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrostatic_precipitator ) made in a blanket form that could also be hung between buildings as with the catalyst cloth? Could this be developed? It would get rid of many unwanted particles.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 08:21:31 +0000