The "Fumes-to-Fuel" technology, which turns used paint solvents into the feed stock for fuel cells, is "almost too good to be true," said Jay Richardson, redevelopment manager at the Rouge Center, the aging suburban Detroit complex where Ford is finishing work on its newest truck assembly plant.

It's also the latest in a series of experimental systems the automaker is testing at Rouge Center. Among other features, the factory incorporates a "living roof," designed to reduce heating and cooling costs and absorb carbon dioxide, a global warming gas.

One of the challenges for any manufacturer is what to do with harmful wastes, such as the solvents normally used in assembly plant paint booths.

While there are cleaner alternatives, "Solvent-based paint provides better qualities than water-based paints or solids," explains Mark Wherrett, Ford's principal environmental engineer.

Currently, the carcinogenic solvent wastes are captured, concentrated and incinerated. Ford's pilot process, developed in cooperation with energy provider Detroit Edison, captures waste solvents, but then converts them to a relatively benign mix of water vapor, CO2 and pure hydrogen.

The latter, lightweight gas will then be fed to a solid oxide fuel cell stack.

A fuel cell is a device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce water and electric current. Ford and other manufacturers are exploring mobile fuel cell systems that could power tomorrow's clean cars.

But while that technology is at least a decade away from commercialization, there's already a growing demand for so-called stationary systems, such as the one going in at Dearborn, site of Ford headquarters.

If nothing else, fuel cells can provide reliable back-up power in the event of an interruption in the primary grid.

According to Wherrett, the prototype Fumes-to-Fuel process announced last week will eliminate 98 percent of waste solvents, along with the millions of cubic feet of natural gas used to fire the incinerator.

"We'll see something like a seven-fold reduction in carbon dioxide emissions," compared to burning the solvent wastes, he said.

On top of that, "We decrease the amount of energy the paint shop purchases from outside," since the pilot program will produce 5 kilowatts of power in the process -- enough for the typical suburban home.

Eventually, Ford intends to "go 20 times larger," treating all Dearborn's solvent wastes and generating 100 kW.

The automaker also is studying how the technology could be integrated into other assembly plants around the world, according to Wherrett.

The Fumes-to-Fuel technology could have a wide range of applications outside the auto industry, he added, noting that hydrocarbon-based solvents are commonly used by furniture makers, for silicon chip manufacturing, and in the production of textiles.

Ford is betting there'll be wider opportunities for many environmentally friendly technologies going in at the Rouge Center.

Built along the Rouge River, the complex was opened more than 80 years ago by company founder Henry Ford.

His great-grandson and current CEO, Bill Ford Jr., backed the "brown field" project as a way to save the ancient facility, which once employed as many as 130,000, and to prove that manufacturing can co-exist with a healthy environment.

"The goal," according to the young family heir, "is to transform the icon of 20th Century manufacturing into the model for 21st Century sustainable manufacturing."

The plant-covered roof improves insulation, holds rainwater that might otherwise overwhelm drainage systems, and it captures carbon dioxide emissions, turning them back into oxygen.

A special pavement system absorbs rain, channeling it to reed-filled treatment ponds before allowing it to flow into the long-polluted Rouge.

The multi-billion-dollar project has been hailed by environmentalists, even though some critics have noted that the plant will also churn out the automaker's new F-150 pickup -- one of the most fuel-thirsty vehicles in the Ford line-up.

The truck -- Ford's flagship vehicle -- is expected to go into production in 2004.

Ultimately, Ford hopes to migrate many of the prototype green technologies being tested at Rouge to other plants around the world.

"If all we do is make this an interesting environmental showpiece, we will have failed," Bill Ford said when the Rouge Center project was announced. "The business case must make sense."

SPACE.WIRE