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Paul Wolfram

May 15, 2014
04:16

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What is the award for the driver after he collected a certain amount of points due to low emission driving? And, on the other hand, what would be the penalty in case the driver exceeds a desired level of emissions? How could you persuade car manufacturers to build this gadget into their cars (as car manufacturers make more money with bigger heavier cars that require more fuel than with smaller fuel saving cars)?

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

May 19, 2014
03:35

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To commence with let us say collecting fair points gives advantage on tax reduction, lesser insurance rates, free parking for the residents etc....on the other hand the penalty would be the inverse. I know it is a rough idea and hard to impose on, but if not now it will be never. You got me on the manufacturers, it will be a real great pain for them so they won't budge, so the government should be harsh and must implement them, For example, in paris they are planning to reduce the fine pollution particles caused by diesel vehicle by banning the heavy vehicles aged more than 18 years and motorbikes more than 10 years, thereby it might reduce the urban pollution. Coming back to the "gadget", the government can impose those on every vehicle autorised by them. For the car manufacturers, for the exotic cars they can implement more eco-tax (old school) but nothing else can be done more for now i guess :(

Climate Colab

Aug 5, 2014
08:32

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Judges' Comments: Nice general idea, but needs more elaboration. For example, how to compare the pollution level of one car compared to others? I would drop the tree planting component, as it leads away from the core idea. I would also require some estimates of the number (and type) of tree's required.

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Aug 7, 2014
05:13

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first of all thanks for selecting my idea, and on the numbers front I can give you some links regarding the plants, new norms etc which i have updated in my proposal. For the pollution level of each cars would be based on a database collected from each car manufacturers which they should give to the government or the people have the right tho know. for example/ http://carfueldata.direct.gov.uk/search-new-or-used-cars.aspx , This site designed by the british government will give you the predicted pollution based on the car, fuel, year of purchase, etc. I am afraid, i am really dont have a strong cost estimation for this project for this time. Trees that absorb CO2 the most: http://www.ehow.com/info_8609132_trees-absorb-carbon-dioxide.html

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Aug 7, 2014
05:31

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Also the concept of "Emissions trading" was the inspiration for my small pollution meter idea. This basically is rewarding someone for polluting the less, who doesn't like rewards, On this world now explaining the advantages and disadvantages won't provoke or inspire people to do stuff it is the Reward which motivates them (most of the time).

Mark Capron

Aug 9, 2014
11:12

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The pollution meter concept may be the largest scale transportation suggestion. Especially if you get at an incentive that is really important to a lot of people - how fast you can go. Your prediction of pollution per mile (grams/kilometer of CO2, NOx, SOx, particulates) should be accurate as a function of vehicle speed. This could be informed by a surrogate measure (like miles per gallon). A real-time indication of miles per gallon is available from the computer in most new cars. We would only need to adjust the rules on a few long straight roads to completely invert the U.S. new-car sales pitch for "high performance" cars. All of a sudden, no one wants 400 HP. They want 100 mph, which can only be delivered by high performance efficiency, not by brute force. You can go as fast as the pollution equivalent of 50 miles to the gallon, up to some safety limit, which might be 100 mph on a road like Highway 5 in California's Central Valley. Concerning safety - We have a few autonomous-communicating vehicles driving about already and many self-driving features built into new cars. When cars are self-driving, there will be a lot of pressure to raise speed limits because accidents become so infrequent with the cars talking to each other and the road.

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Aug 11, 2014
05:26

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Thanks you Oceanforesters! Actually the pollution measurement does already exist, like back in my home in India, we should have a pollution certificate on our vehicle and it should be renewed every year. so this can be measured in some govt. approved outlets. so my idea is to integrate these measurement on board with live measurement. Voila! I agree with you regarding the sudden change, people need to get to places faster than speed of light sometimes. But the idea is to make them aware of the pollution they are causing with paying extra tax for the same. Like recently the UK government has imposed pollution tax on every vehicle which should be paid once in 6 months or per year. The auto driving cars are still under testing and it would take much more time to use them for our day-to-day life. For the time being we would concentrate on the present cars. When there are automatic self driving cars on the road, I am sure they would take into consideration the pollution as the on-board computer would help to accelerate and decelerate the vehicle gradually without more loss in the power and less pollution. Thanks again for your support. Here is the link to measure your pollution and tax amount https://www.gov.uk/calculate-vehicle-tax-rates

Jan Kunnas

Aug 27, 2014
06:53

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Interesting idea! What would the advantage be over a fuel consumption meter that most new cars nowadays have? Fuel consumption = CO2 emissions.

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Aug 28, 2014
02:09

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Hello Mr. Jan Kunnas, Basically the fuel consumption meter would show you the amount of fuel you have consumed, Whereas the pollution meter might show you the CO and HC emmisions from burning the fuel. In particular, during acceleration even with advanced technology the air+fuel mixture would not be completely burnout there by causing unburnt smoke to exhaust from the vehicle. In fact, the level of pollution is high to low as the following order acceleration, decceleration, cruising and idling. Thanks for your support!

Climate Colab

Sep 3, 2014
12:26

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Judges' Comments: The authors mainly propose to install pollution prediction meters in automobiles and display panels over the roads. This is a simple, low-cost idea that could affect travel behaviour, although it would probably not be a game changer. The proposal could be presented in a more straightforward and focused fashion. Also, some lack of detail, i.e., what type of rewards, how to avoid interference with the meter, etc. The technical challenges for measuring actual pollution levels would be challenging, especially the criteria pollutants HC, CO, NOx, and PM. The on-board diagnostics systems in most modern vehicles (called OBD-II in the USA) are not actual pollution measuring devices but use other on-board sensors to infer a failure that increases criteria pollutants. The estimated cost of such equipment is underestimated. Actual pollution measuring equipment costs thousands of dollars. Some diesel manufacturers have been trying for years to develop an inexpensive on-board NOx sensor but nothing has come to fruition yet. Measuring CO2 on-board is fairly easy and doesn't require any special software. CO2 is based simply off of the amount of fuel burned and the carbon intensity of the fuel, e.g., gasoline vs. diesel. The common miles per gallon or liters/100km meter can be used as a CO2 meter in some regard. This seems to be similar to an indicator in a car that shows the current consumption (mpg...) and people can use this as well (but might not do it as much as they should?). The concept makes sense, might be a bit overly optimistic. Introducing pollution meters on vehicles requires first a definition of pollution: is it CO2 or other pollutants (SOx, NOx, PM etc)? The author does not specify.Assuming that it is for all pollutants, how would the system affect behavior?Drivers already have at their disposal a real time fuel consumption gauge? Fuel consumption an pollution is highly correlated anyway - how will the increased information help the driving behavior? Similarly by collecting this and displaying it real time on the road side. I am not sure this proposal is concretely thought out to advance to the next level at this stage.

Sundararajan Nedunchelian

Sep 4, 2014
02:35

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Good work Mr.Shenbagarajan :)

Jean-pierre Sancho

Sep 4, 2014
01:26

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hehe... might be fun to have a "controlled level of pollution" per car/per month!!! or per year...that's easy.

Hemant Wagh

Sep 6, 2014
02:25

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Reducing the CO2 & Other GHG emissions by vehicles is a reasonable approach and the pollution meter would certainly be helpful. this approach may be coupled with Biological Capture & Sequestration of Carbon. Along with marine a land bases CCS program would be beneficial, more so if it helps provide nourishing food to populace. A proposal outlining such an approach is available. Following is a link to such a proposal. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300103/planId/1310401 This would help bolster the efforts directed at finding workable solution to climate change..

Mambo 4763

Sep 6, 2014
10:50

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Good work Mr.Shenbagarajan :)

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Sep 8, 2014
04:50

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Dear Mr. Hemant Wagh, thanks for your proposal it is promising however carbon sequestration is basically a form of geoengineering and it would help reduce the Carbon pollution from automobiles, industries etc. And your project proposal is nice one too, it would really help provide food for the growing and demanding population. My proposal is basically to reduce to pollution footprint from automobile pollution by implanting some awareness each and every time to the people. So combining these two projects are little not doable as it has nothing in common, however we can discuss them further! Thanks again for your proposal!

Dechet Du Net

Sep 8, 2014
10:58

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Bonne chance !

Ramesh Kumar

Sep 13, 2014
03:30

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Good Work! Can this be an indicator to allow the vehicle in Express high ways to start with? Some labs can certify / calibrate the meter, the meter to have a record of maximum emission attained.

Osero Shadrack Tengeya

Sep 17, 2014
03:23

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Hi Shenba and your friends, kindly consider voting for my proposal shown on this link. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300206/planId/1002 Thanks.

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Sep 20, 2014
04:34

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Dear Judges, First of all I thank you team for selecting my proposal as one of the finalists and thank you for your precious comments. Sorry for the late reply for your questions, Will try to explain in different aspects of this project: 1. Technical point of view: It is still a nice challenge to improve and come up with a low cost multi-gas detector, However for the time being the major pollutants CO2 and CO can be measured not just by predicting from the amount of fuel burn but with actual measuring meters example: Nondispersive Infrared (NDIR) CO2 Sensors with are already used in scuba O2 tanks, greenhouses etc. Which would cost around 100 to 1000$ maximum but here we would go for the compact low cost ones. And there are someother technologies on the horizon like already discussed IR and NDIR technology, gas analysers using Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy etc. The later technology is used by Yokogawa electric corporation which produces sensors for industries, sites, harbours etc. which is a multigas analyser with can detect and measure the CO2, CO, H2O, Nox, SOx. I am in contact with some companies regarding these multi gas sensors and measurement devices. Even there is a new site and company on the upcoming for measuring the GHG emissions live for the specific are in the world using dedicated satellites. We can come up with solutions, that is why this forum and contest is for. ^^ 2. The general future plan: The measuring and having an on-board pollution meter will give the public a general awareness all the time showing how much they are polluting. The public panels on the motor-ways and cities again for showing the people is the air which they are breathing are how much polluted (not how much pure :P we have already crossed that bridge long time ago I guess). The pollution levels from each car will be linked to your driver’s permit which in turn can help you get some good grades or points like save some points when you get a speeding ticket next time, low taxes on pollution and car, can also be linked to getting loans with low interest rates, reduction or offer in fuel for your car etc (you get the general idea), this I am too small to decide as this would be the government who need to implement. As this world want a change but not a quick one, nor willing to spend money on them, so the idea is to make them use a system where they can get a reward in the end. 3. Cost point of view: The Co2 and CO analysers are not that costly, however for the multi-gas analyser (compact and online), it will be more cost. The initial cost of a new technology will always be high, they as time goes, with upgrades and improvements the cost comes down. Take the example of the electric or battery powered cars, at first the battery sizes were huge and so does the prize, now people have come up with quick charging technologies with a compact size, so have hope that even this measuring devices will be low cost or it would be already found and being used but the major players doesn’t want the public to know about it or someone wants to make money out of it waiting for their patent. So the conclude I am still in the conceptual design phase so only my explanations are very general at this time, so for the industrial design I am still in contact with some engineers at my workplace and also with some manufacturers of the gas meters and analysers regarding the price, technology and compatibility. Also I am in contact with the laboratory of my old college, also if some of the experienced people in the judges could guide me in this aspect, I would really appreciate. Thank you. https://www.yokogawa.com/rd/pdf/TR/rd-te-r05302-012.pdf http://www.ghgsat.com/ http://www.vasthi.com/portable-multi-gas-analyzer/

Shenbagarajan Pandiarajan

Sep 20, 2014
04:50

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Hello Mr. Ramesh, Thanks for your support, Yeah the pollution level indicator along the highways and city centers can be the best way to start with and it already exists in some major cities. example. Along with weather report, the pollution level is indicated in newspapers, news channels and also on the panels on the ring roads of Paris. So yeah as you suggested, the best way is to installing pollution meters along the highways, city centers and showing them on the panels along with the traffic level, speed limit, work-in-progress extra over the roads etc.

Sanal Chalakkal

Sep 22, 2014
07:55

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Good work Shenba.

Swaroop Subramanian

Sep 22, 2014
01:34

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Great work shenba. Keep going:))

Anne-marie Soulsby

Sep 23, 2014
03:14

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Hi shenba, Please consider voting for my proposal, https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300801/planId/1309001 Good luck with your entry! Asante/Thank-you @conserveaction

Victor Blanco

Oct 4, 2014
11:34

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Congratulations!!! Please check the "Discusion Section" in the "Community" label... Proposal of activity during the Conference Session of 2014 Winners... https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/discussion#discussion%3DpageType%3ATHREAD%2CthreadId%3A1337218