[99mustang232]

Ford's fumes-to-fuel system roll-out:

Ford Motor Co. is preparing to roll out a system to capture toxic paint fumes and convert them into electrical power.

Priming, painting and clear coating millions of new cars and trucks every year creates millions of pounds (kilos) of waste at plants around the world. America's No. 2 automaker is helping to pioneer a way to better deal with the fumes, according to a media report.

"We're very pleased with the results so far,'' Mark Wherrett, Ford's principal environmental engineer, told the Detroit Free Press for a Sunday story. "It's a pollution-control system that uses less energy than the old system.''

Ford has been working with its suppliers to develop a fumes-to-fuel system that converts the volatile organic compounds given off by paint fumes into fuel that generates power. The generated power is returned to the plant power grid. It's enough electricity to light a typical suburban block of homes, which is more than 100,000watts.

The fumes-to-fuel technology was developed in conjunction with DTE Energy Co.

Currently, paint fumes at auto plants are collected and burned in incinerators. Paint overspray is captured, treated and consolidated into nonhazardous sludge that is eventually dumped in landfills.

Ford first tested the system in 2004 at it's Rouge complex and showed that the idea could work. Two years later, Ford is wrapping up a pilot program at the Michigan Truck Plant.

Ford is preparing to roll out the system at other plants as equipment is updated and replaced, the newspaper said. The company's plant in Oakville, Ontario, which builds the Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey minivans, is scheduled to install a fumes-to-fuel system early next year.

[Drgnracin72]

cool!!!