Ford Turns Paint Fumes to Fuel

Ford has unveiled a cutting-edge paint shop at its Michigan Truck Plant that not only reduces volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions by 10 percent and CO2 by 20 percent, but saves money at the same time - up to $11 per vehicle painted. Considering the millions of cars produced by Ford annually, that's a substantial sum.

 

The paint shop incorporates three major technological innovations: high-solids solvent-based paint that's more durable and involves lower emissions than water-borne paints; a three-step wet paint process that eliminates the need for a prime-coat application; and fumes-to-fuel technology that uses scrubbed VOCs to generate electricity. Ford's Ohio assembly plant will incorporate a pilot paint shop using these technologies sometime in 2006.

 

Paint shops represent one of auto manufacturing's greatest environmental challenges, with the auto industry producing some 70 million pounds of paint fumes annually that are collected and destroyed before being emitted into the air. Industry-wide, about 24 million pounds of paint overspray are captured in spray booths and treated, with the resulting non-hazardous sludge destined for landfills. Ford points out that even efficient painting processes still result in some overspray sludge, which the company will dry and then recycle to create sound deadening materials for the passenger compartments of its vehicles.