‘We’re taking this global’ - Local inventor hopes fuel-saving CO2 absorber will boost climate change fight
Published:Friday | February 5, 2021 | 12:14 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Nkrumah Fong, CEO and Founder of Consolidated Environment Research Laboratory, has invented a game-changing vehicular tailpipe exhaust absorber and capture device, which he believes is a multibillion-dollar solution to a multibillion-dollar problem.
Fong, 31, says that his creation – VT EXACAP (tube) model 1 – is a ground-breaking invention, the first worldwide.
“It’s basically a device that captures emissions from the exhaust by absorbing the CO2 (carbon dioxide), the carbon monoxide and the soot,” Fong explained of his creation, which landed him second place at last week’s Vincent Ho-Sang business model competition.
He said that the device is the world’s first viable tail pipe exhaust filter and absorber.
“We find some way to filter the exhaust, to put it through an absorption to reduce the carbon dioxide, which is one of the main [contributors] in climate change,” he said, pointing to its potential far-reaching impact.
“The idea is to get this in the market before the end of the year in terms of getting persons using the product and giving an overall feedback because we’re taking this global,” he added, saying that the device reduces emissions by between 50 and 90 per cent.
WATCH: Jamaican inventor hopes fuel-saving device will boost climate change fight
Currently, the device is undergoing a stress test, and Fong is seeking 70 Jamaican data testers to utilise the product over a two-month period. These 70 testers, Fong said, would be among the very first to get a device when the product hits the market.
A summer 2021 timeline has been earmarked for full roll-out, and the devices, which he is projecting could be offered at a $15,000 starting price.
“I have been designing it from 2016, and it’s just last year I came to this design. We surveyed the market, and persons would actually buy this,” he told The Gleaner.
INSPIRED AS STUDENT
He said the seed for the idea was planted while he was a student at Innswood High School.
“I was sitting in class and teacher was teaching about environment and effects on the environment. The word wasn’t ‘climate change’ at the time; it was ‘global warming’. I asked the question, ‘Why we don’t just capture the exhaust from the tailpipe?’, and the teacher said, ‘Well, no one has done it yet’,” Fong recalled.
That inspired him to read for a degree in chemistry at The University of the West Indies, Mona, and complete his postgraduate studies in environment management.
Emphasising that Jamaica, like other countries, will be affected by climate change, Fong said that the world need not wait for new alternative energy options to come on stream decades from now.
“What are we going to do about one billion vehicles affecting the world now? That’s my take. We need to come up with solutions that capture the problem,” he said. “Carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles are just one. There are carbon dioxide emissions among other gases from all types of industries, but the vehicle contributes 25 per cent.”
Plus, there’s an added benefit, Fong revealed.
“This device will save the driver [30 per cent] on fuel, and we are hoping to launch an app with the device that will track performance of your engine and exhaust composition of the exhaust, basically telling you, directly to your mobile, how well you are burning fuel,” he told The Gleaner.
He explained that the invention was a team effort by his Consolidated Environment Research Laboratory and is patented in Jamaica, but the idea has not been pitched to any government technocrats.
“I am not interested to do that right now. What I want to do is develop the product. I am not seeking an investment right now. I am personally invested, and I won some monies from competitions, so I personally will be developing this product, bring it to the point where it [can be invested in]. In my opinion, it’s not [there yet]. It’s just a prototype,” Fong said.
He said that the device is easily maintained and environmentally friendly.
“It’s light – entirely plastic – and the components inside of it are made from used plastics, particularly the filter. The filter is made from everyday bottles ground to make what is called a sheet. The sheet it rolled into a filter and sandwiched in between different absorption materials,” said the inventor.