Envirofit gadget named one of World’s Top 10
The Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory [at
CSU] together with Envirofit developed a bolt-on, direct-injection retrofit kit
for carbureted two-stroke engines that are major polluters in many Third World
countries.
The Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory [at CSU] together with Envirofit developed a bolt-on, direct-injection retrofit kit for carbureted two-stroke engines that are major polluters in many Third World countries.
This technology drastically reduces pollution to within acceptable environmental standards while improving fuel economy more than 35 percent. This easily installed, direct-injection retrofit technology is initially targeted to the tens of millions of tricycle taxis that dominate the roads in many Third World countries.
The taxis are critical to the social structure in providing economical transportation for the working class and providing income for millions of tricycle taxi driver families. The deadly pollution from these inexpensive, yet polluting vehicles also kills thousands of people annually in areas of Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.
“Who creates gadgets to change their world?” wrote John Voelcker, author of the article that appeared in the Stanford Social Innovation Review [summer 2006 issue]. “The 10 social entrepreneurs profiled in this article do. But they don’t just invent gizmos … They also ask hard-nosed economic questions that help them understand their products’ distribution, adoption and maintenance.”
Late last year, Envirofit signed its first major agreement to retrofit 3,000 two-stroke tricycle taxi engines in Vigan, a UNESCO World Heritage city in the northern Philippines, with cleaner, more efficient engines. The innovative retrofit technology will reduce harmful emissions from two-stroke engines by up to 90 percent and reduce fuel consumption by more than 35 percent.
Economies of scale should get the cost of these units down to $200 or less. A program of micro-loans is set to operate in parallel to enable taxi operators to pay for the retrofit in one year. These dudes only make about $4-8/day.
Posted: Thu - June 29, 2006 at 07:06 AM