Exhaust pollution solution. Is this design feasible ?

Question

I have a potential idea for a solution to green house warming. We engineers can design a HEPA type filter with a liquid solution and charcoal filters and absorbers to absord the emmisions from cars and buses. This filter could be installed in the trunk and the exhaust gas would be piped from the exhaust to the trunk and then discharged from the side of the car

Answer 1

Your idea would only work up to the point where the filter media would become "used up." A HEPA filter would not anything other than to remove solid particulate from the exhaust gas. Unfortunately the big contributor to green house gas are the Nitrogen compouds and Carbon Dioxide formed during the combustion process. These can be removed chemically, but then you would simply convert the waste from a gas to solid or liquid form. And the energy required to do this would create even more green house gases.

To make your idea work, you will have to rewrite the laws of thermodynamics.

Answer 2

OK it is possible to put an amine or carbonate solution scrubber in a car but like a myriad of ideas which may occur to people it needs some idea of amounts required, implications and likely costs. Bear in mind that burning petrol generates more mass of CO2 than that of the petrol itself. Any absorber would be likely to need to be at least one order of magnitude heavier and bulkier than the fuel tank and maybe more. It is likely that every time the petrol tank was filled the 'liquid solution' would have to be drained and fresh solution added. There would be the cost of regenerating the 'liquid solution' and for the exercise to be meaningful sequestering the CO2 released. I have to say that all in all it doesn't sound as attractive to me as hydrogen or electric cars with any CO2 involved in the production of hydrogen or electricity being sequestered at source.

Edited comment: I don't know where richard Alvarado (below)has got the notion that this idea inherently breaks the rules of thermodynamics. Useful net energy certainly can be extracted from fossil fuels whilst releasing very little CO2 into the atmosphere. One such scheme is: http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7019791

Answer 3

charcoal is there already, in the catalytic converterter.
It is only there b/c of government requirement - it increases cost of car and fuel consumption (as it reduces power output).

Good luck pushing additional filters thru congress, or convincing people to install them voluntary.