A way to improve the environment... cheap

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The Almighty
http://www.envirofit.org/?q=our-products/2-stroke-retrofit

The Challenge

Because of the chronic nature of air pollution and the fact that its impacts fall disproportionately on the poor, it is not always recognized for its pervasive role in poor health, poverty and economic stagnation. A major source of outdoor air pollution is carbureted two-stroke engines, which power 100 million “two-wheelers” (e.g. motorcycles, scooters) and “three-wheelers” (e.g. tricycles, “tuk-tuks”) across Southeast Asia. Each of these carbureted two-stroke engines produces the pollution output of 50 modern automobiles, thus contributing the pollution-equivalent of approximately 5 billion automobiles. These engines represent one of the largest sources of vehicular emissions in the world.

The Solution

Envirofit International has developed a Direct In-cylinder (DI) fuel injection retrofit kit for two-stroke engines that is cleaner and more fuel efficient than the replacement four-stroke engines.


Project Benefits
Mature Product Development Process

In comparison to the carbureted 2-stroke engine, Envirofit’s two-stroke DI retrofit kit reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 76%, carbon dioxide emissions by 35%, and hydrocarbon emissions by 89%. At the same time, fuel use is reduced by 35% and oil by 50%. In comparison, carbureted 4-strokes increase carbon monoxide by 2% and only have a 20% reduction in fuel consumption.

Local municipalities stand to gain tremendous benefits from Envirofit’s retrofit projects. The summary below shows the relative improvements in key factors of air quality and energy consumption that a city with 3,000 retrofitted tricycles would expect to see.
Annual Impact

* Cumulative number of retrofits: 3000 taxis
* Tons of carbon dioxide eliminated: 3000 tons
* Liters of fuel saved: 1,440,000 liters
* Automobile equivalents of pollution eliminated: 150,000
* Dollars infused into local economy: $1,410,000
* Local jobs created: 15 - 20 jobs

Economic

Local economies stand to gain tremendous benefit from the implementation Envirofit projects.

* Depending on capacity, as many as fifty local jobs will be created via the commercial installation/service center
* A reduction in tricycle taxi operating costs will increase income to local tricycle taxi drivers and owners, and thus investment in local community
* Local supply chain sourcing should provide a boost to local companies
* As local air quality and environment improve, the tourist experience will improve, and this should eventually be reflected in the general economic health of the city
* As local air quality and environment improve, the health of the citizens should improve, thereby reducing health-related economic costs
 
Envirofit is a NON-profit company that is willing to provide this technology to the world for free. Anyone can use it. They are a spin-off group from Colorado State University.

There are an estimated 100 million of these two stroke vehicles in the world. Predominantly in China, India and the rest of Asia, but also to an extent in Africa. These 100 million two-strokes pollution equivalent is roughly the same as 5 BILLION autos.

Each retrofit is roughly $300.

To covert the entire 100 million it would cost approximately $30 billion.

The benefit....

1) reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 76%: equivalent of removing the carbon monoxide emissions of 3.8 billion cars

2) carbon dioxide emissions by 35%: equivalent of removing the CO2 emissions of 1.75 BILLION cars

3) hydrocarbon emissions by 89%: equivalent of removing 4.45 billion cars

4) fuel use is reduced by 35%

5) reduce oil by 50%

Add in the benefits to the environment, the peoples health...

For $30 billion... I would say that is well worth it. We would likely save that in lower fuel costs alone within five years. Add in the reduction in sick days and healthcare costs and you have a very significant net positive. Not to mention the bulk of these two-strokes are owned by the operators, which means they make more money which will also help boost their local economies.
 
Watermark said:
Why are they providing it for free? How can they afford that?
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They are a non-profit. They created the technology while at CSU. They are giving it away for free for the betterment of society. They want to encourage countries like China and India to take the technology and run with it. Keep in mind, it is the technology that is free. They are not able to manufacture all the kits and give them away for free. They are simply allowing the IP to be used by anyone.
 
Superfreak said:
Envirofit is a NON-profit company that is willing to provide this technology to the world for free. Anyone can use it. They are a spin-off group from Colorado State University.

There are an estimated 100 million of these two stroke vehicles in the world. Predominantly in China, India and the rest of Asia, but also to an extent in Africa. These 100 million two-strokes pollution equivalent is roughly the same as 5 BILLION autos.

Each retrofit is roughly $300.

To covert the entire 100 million it would cost approximately $30 billion.

The benefit....

1) reduces carbon monoxide emissions by 76%: equivalent of removing the carbon monoxide emissions of 3.8 billion cars

2) carbon dioxide emissions by 35%: equivalent of removing the CO2 emissions of 1.75 BILLION cars

3) hydrocarbon emissions by 89%: equivalent of removing 4.45 billion cars

4) fuel use is reduced by 35%

5) reduce oil by 50%

Add in the benefits to the environment, the peoples health...

For $30 billion... I would say that is well worth it. We would likely save that in lower fuel costs alone within five years. Add in the reduction in sick days and healthcare costs and you have a very significant net positive. Not to mention the bulk of these two-strokes are owned by the operators, which means they make more money which will also help boost their local economies.
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You're dead on about two stroke engines. Don't forget about all the lawn mowers and weed wackers in the US that are exempted from CAA emmision standards. We could start with this technology at home. The problem from 2 stroke engines is certainly an under rated air pollution problem and is a major contributor.

Having said that, I knew a two stroke engine released more VOC's and particulates and C02 emmisions then a typical automobile engine but 50 to 1? I find that difficult to believe (not saying your wrong, it just stretches the imagination.).
 
so we can "fix" every lawnmower in the US for only $300 each?......including the ones for sale on craig's list for $100?.......
 
Superfreak said:
They are a non-profit. They created the technology while at CSU. They are giving it away for free for the betterment of society. They want to encourage countries like China and India to take the technology and run with it. Keep in mind, it is the technology that is free. They are not able to manufacture all the kits and give them away for free. They are simply allowing the IP to be used by anyone.
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Their are organizations that do that. I did research at Ohio State for 3 years under an EMTEC grant to develop hazardous waste recycling technologies. The funding of the grant was a consortium of Private industry, academia and government agencies funding research to facilitate and expedite technology transfer. It can be an incredibly affective method for developing under utilized technologies and transferring those technologies to common usage. That's essentially how the internet was created.
 
PostmodernProphet said:
so we can "fix" every lawnmower in the US for only $300 each?......including the ones for sale on craig's list for $100?.......
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No but we can remove their exemption for emission standards and require OEM's to utilize technologies such as this so as to comply with emission standards. In addition, the economy of scale this would produce would dramatically decrease the cost of implementing such technology transfer and offering it in the market place at a very reasonable cost.

I'd like to learn more about this project. It sounds like a wonderful example of private sector/academic/government partnership.
 
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Mott the Hoople said:
That may be true but there probably swamped by the over all number of 2 stroke engines presently being used.
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I don't know, perhaps, but 2 stroke boat motors are pretty much history and so are 2 cycle lawnmovers and motorcycles.

What they should do is fine the heck out of those that crank up their injectors and spew black smoke everywhere. Some leave giant clouds of black smoke.

I would like to see the law if a mechanic finds an injector pump cranked up he is required to report it.
 
I have 4 4 legged weedeaters. aka goats, they keep the fence rows pretty clean.
They like weeds better than grass and the cows like grass. Works out pretty well.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
You're dead on about two stroke engines. Don't forget about all the lawn mowers and weed wackers in the US that are exempted from CAA emmision standards. We could start with this technology at home. The problem from 2 stroke engines is certainly an under rated air pollution problem and is a major contributor.

Having said that, I knew a two stroke engine released more VOC's and particulates and C02 emmisions then a typical automobile engine but 50 to 1? I find that difficult to believe (not saying your wrong, it just stretches the imagination.).
Click to expand...

I simply took the info from their site as far as the 50 to 1. But given the minds behind the project I didn't really doubt them. When I took a tour of the CSU labs and they showed the emissions charts and the data behind them, it looked legit to me. The two strokes according to them simply do not burn fuel efficiently at all. They are very poorly designed. The converter corrects quite a bit of it. Again, this is all simply what I was told as members of our group did ask about that and that was their response.

Regardless, as you stated, this is a very understated problem and one that is easily rectified.
 
PostmodernProphet said:
so we can "fix" every lawnmower in the US for only $300 each?......including the ones for sale on craig's list for $100?.......
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To be honest I have no idea if these conversion kits would work on lawnmowers. I don't know enough about engines to say that. But the two-stoke vehicles are the target that can be fixed and it is economically viable to do so.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
No but we can remove their exemption for emission standards and require OEM's to utilize technologies such as this so as to comply with emission standards. In addition, the economy of scale this would produce would dramatically decrease the cost of implementing such technology transfer and offering it in the market place at a very reasonable cost.

I'd like to learn more about this project. It sounds like a wonderful example of private sector/academic/government partnership.
Click to expand...

Their website is linked on the initial post.
 
Topspin said:
I have a 4 stroke weed eater works good. Those trucks could run biodiesel.
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I have one for my mountain cabin and that's all I use to cut the grass since the lawn is just 4' wide along both sides of the driveway, about 4' in front of the house and about ten on one side. I've looked all over for biodiesel to use for the boiler but none's available for delivery or on-route were I could haul it myself.
 
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