Motorboats do not have a very good ecological image. But what if they could provide a solution to pollution? Suzuki has just proposed an approach in this sense. This Japanese engine manufacturer proposes that outboard motors participate in cleaning the oceans of their plastic waste.
How do you do it? Simply by adding a filter to the engine's cooling system. A marine engine uses water for cooling. It pumps the water on which it sails, circulates it through the engine and uses it to cool it before discharging it into the sea.
Water "consumption" is difficult to estimate, but it is very important. As soon as the engine is hot and the thermostat is open, several hundred liters per hour are circulated. It is on this cooling circuit, before rejecting the water via the exhaust that Suzuki added a filter which collects the microplastics, before rejecting a "clean" water.
With a set of valves, the hot water is diverted to the filter. In case of a clogged filter, the valves let the water flow freely in the original circuit (hence the 2 parallel pipes visible on the picture).
This filter can be easily adapted without modifying the engine and especially without affecting its operation. Suzuki announces that it will be able to be adapted on all the range even if it is still too early to know exactly how the modifications will be carried out.
For the user, the use of this filter is totally transparent. He will thus become a "cleaner of the seas" each time he sails with his outboard. It will simply be necessary to clean the filter regularly by evacuating the waste towards adapted recycling systems.
Suzuki will offer it as an option on its engines starting in 2021 and even imagines mounting it in series thereafter. A good, simple and undoubtedly effective idea.
