New equipment turns breath into biofuel

John Lennon Airport in the city of Liverpool will become the first airport in the world to apply technology to transform passengers' breaths into biofuel, in order to save on fuel costs.

Illustration.

A device called the Eco-box, built by Origo Industries, will take the CO2 emitted by the passenger and turn it into fuel for use in motor vehicles using diesel and airport heating.

New early Eco-box is designed with the aim of reducing CO ₂ emissions from vehicles. Equipment to collect CO ₂ emissions to supply photosynthesis of algae and algae produces oil during photosynthesis. On the same unit area, the amount of oil that algae produce is 30 times that of soy.

Diesel engines can burn algae oil and this oil can turn into biodiesel through refining.

The installation of the Eco-box is in progress with the goal of producing about 109,000 liters of biofuel in the pilot project, providing heat and hot water to the airport.

Origo Industries said it can supply the airport with about 3,632 liters of fuel a day and believes it will start to make profit after the system has officially been in operation for a year.