Green Nanotechnology Can Reduce Pollution from Diesel Fuel Emissions

2 June 2007

Green Nanotechnology is the term applied to the innovative blending of Nanotechnology solutions to environmental problems. One such example taking place in Japan involves a startling discovery made by researchers in converting soot from diesel fuel emissions into carbon Nanotubes. The end result is an environmentally friendly manufacturing process made possible by Nanotechnology.

While the industrialized world looks for ways of reducing the amount of toxic carbon emissions into the atmosphere, Nanotechnology goes one step further. It enables companies to effectively neutralize the effect of existing pollutants, rendering them harmless.

This new world of Nano-enabled solutions belongs to a set of devices known by the moniker of “Nanofiltration.” These types of filters are already in wide use already, in applications such as water and air filters, as well as in the smokestack stacks of some manufacturing companies. The filtered material, however–be it diesel soot or other kinds–may eventually go into the ground. Thus, a true Green Nanotechnology solution must involve a two-pronged approach that deals both with the filtration as well as its after effects.

In Japan, researchers have demonstrated how this can be done with diesel soot, the byproduct of diesel fuel emissions. They have collected the soot from the internal combustion engines of vehicles and have demonstrated that it can be recycled into manufacturing material for carbon Nanotubes. Particulate matter filters remove the soot, while laser vaporization is used to synthesize the single-walled Carbon Nanotubes. The process was published in an article entitled, “Synthesis of Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes from Diesel Soot”, in the Japanese Journal of Applied Physics.

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