Traffic jams are a common sight in Southeast Asia, and with the gruesome poverty and average middle class contributing as a major chunk of the population, two-wheeler and three-wheeler rickshaws that are affordable and easy rides, form a common-man’s rescue. Embedded with the two-stroke engines, the aforementioned emit an amount of pollution equaling 50 modern automobiles using four-stroke engines, thereby contributing handsomely to pollute the region.
The pathetic scenario may soon meet a resolve, as the two-wheelers and three-wheelers could be on the way for a greener transition. Envirofit, an independent, non-profit company established at Colorado State University, is developing a retrofit kit that could help improvise upon the fuel efficiency of the two-stroke engines.
The retrofit kit will do away with the carburetor that’ll allow the fuel to flow directly into the engine cylinder, thus conserving more unburned fuel – approximately to about 35 to 50% and thereby also decreasing the emissions of the two-stroke engines by about 90 percent. This technology will not only help reduce pollution but will also effect a major cost cutting in the Indian sub-continent and other regions of South Asia.
The World Clean Energy Awards in Basel, Switzerland awarded the retrofit kit project for its contribution towards clean transport and mobility, recognizing its innovative efforts towards bringing efficient renewable energy on to the roads. Presently the kit is priced heavily, but with an estimated 100 million two-stroke vehicles in Southeast Asia alone, the retrofit kit has a well-developed market. The kit will surely be a big success in the Indian sub-continent, but its high price may just keep it out of the market, for which Envirofit faces a up-hill task, and will have to look-up for ways to produce the kit in more affordable range.
[Source: Treehugger]
