9:10am Wednesday 17th June 2009
A PAINTER and decorater and an electrician from Farnworth are branching out into a new career that they believe could help save the planet.
Roy Robinson and Mark Halligan have been trained to fit a new device to engines that they claim saves fuel and reduces harmful emissions.
The pair travelled to New York to learn how to fit the hydrogen cells to vehicles, which supplement petrol and diesel engines.
Since completing the four week course they have set up their own business, North West Hydrogen Conversions, and have already installed the equipment on 16 vehicles.
The men fitted a system to their own vans to test the emissions and fuel savings for themselves and were astonished by the results.
Mr Robinson, a 25-year-old electrician, said: “We tested the emissions before we installed the cell and again afterwards and the bloke at the MoT station couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the readout.
“We also found that we use around 48 per cent less diesel since we fitted the hydrogen cell.”
Gary Jones, owner of Equip Tyre and Auto Care in Walkden, said he was amazed by the readings.
He said: “When they brought the van in for an MoT it only just scraped through on the emissions, but when we tested it again after they had fitted the unit they were very low.
“Normally, a van that’s done 93,000 miles would be near the top end of emissions, but theirs was very low.”
Mr Halligan, aged 25, a painter and decorator by trade, said: “As we are in a recession we feel that this will help people save money and it’s good for the environment as well by cleaning up the emissions from vehicles.”
Hydrogen fuel cells work by stripping hydrogen from the water through electrolysis and the resulting gas is then fed into the air intake pipe leading to the combustion chamber.
This helps create a cleaner burn through more efficient combustion, giving more power for less fuel usage.
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