INNOVATIVE HYDROGEN SOLUTIONS in Canada has a machine no bigger than my DVD player that apparently eliminates almost all emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles. The company says it is developing a version of the machine that will be one-eighth the size of the current prototype and that should be ready by next year. It is small enough to sit in the boot of my car although the next generation should slip under the bonnet. It could make the Kyoto protocol obsolete. It's branded as the H2N-Gen and it contains a small reservoir of distilled water and other chemicals such as potassium hydroxide. A current is run from the car battery through the liquid. This process of electrolysis creates hydrogen and oxygen gases which are then fed into the engine's intake manifold where they mix with the gasoline vapours.
The H2N-Gen can be attached to any kind of internal combustion engine: diesel, gasoline, propane/natural gas. Because it manufactures only enough hydrogen to feed the engine at a given time, there is no dangerous onboard storage of hydrogen gas and no hydrogen under pressure.
The inventor believes the H2N-Gen will serve as a bridge between the present and the time when the combustion engine is relegated to the scrap heap of history. The preferred interim solution has been gasoline-electric hybrid cars, which remain expensive.
William Marsden -- "Can this man save the world?"
Image of Peter Romaniuk by John Mahoney in the Montreal Gazette.
