Environmentally Damaging Emissions Info
Some definitions, explanations and information on harmful emissions,
their causes and some recent technological solutions.

Fuel - Fuel is any material which creates energy when its physical state is changed or altered in any way.

Bio fuel - Bio fuel is a fuel that comes from biomass, for example, cow manure so bio fuel comes from renewable sources. It stores the fuel in the form of solar energy through the process of photosynthesis in plants. One other benefit to the environment is that even if bio fuel is pilled, it is biodegradable so it is not going to affect the environment in any way.
Examples of products grown agriculturally to be turned into bio fuel include rapeseed, corn and sugar cane.
Bio fuel is now starting to be used in the car industry where it is being mixed with petrol to produce bioethanol, however, as bio fuel is now reported to reduce greenhouse gases by 65%, it is inevitable that this will be the way forward in years to come in the car industry.

Air pollution - This is where a matter affects the atmosphere and modifies the concentration levels of the atmosphere. This is then harmful to humans as it can cause respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema. According to the World Health Organisation, approximately 4.6 million people across the world die of air pollution related illnesses.
Some of the sources of air pollution are cars, burning fossil fuels, fumes from solvents, landfill sites which release methane and also from more natural sources in the forms of volcanoes.
Cars produce Nitrogen Oxide that pollutes the air and can often lie in blankets over the major cities of the world.

Results - The results of air pollution can be seen in the forms of smog and acid rain. Smog occurs when fog combines with various gases, water and dust. It normally occurs in places where there is heavy traffic, light to no wind and high temperatures.
Currently, acid rain does not occur as much as smog but it is increasing. Acid rain is where sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides mix with water vapour in the atmosphere. These then come back to earth in the form of rain. They harmful gases originate from the burning of fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel.

Environmentally friendly methods - Simple steps you can take to reduce the amount of energy you use:
-- Drive a fuel efficient car, and where possible, try cycling or walking
-- Make sure your home is properly insulated
-- Ensure you switch off home appliances that don’t need to be on, for example, lights, don’t leave your TV on standby
-- Recycle your waste where possible by investing in a compost bin and by using recycle bins that are being introduced across the country

Emission control technologies - There are some technologies used to reduce the thermal NO in industrial processes, such as flameless oxidation and staged combustion. Bowin low NO technology is one such technology developed for this purpose, using a Bowin burner. Catalytic converters are one development which have made significant impact to reducing emissions from motor vehicles.

Automobile emissions - These can be said to fall into three basic categories:
Tailpipe emissions - this is the product of the burning fuel in the engine, emitted through the exhuast pipe, and is what most people think of when they think of harmful automobile emissions. It includes Hydrocarbons (which is unburned or partially burned fuel, and is toxic as well as contributing to smog), Nitrous Oxides (this constributes to smog, acid rain, and is produced when oxygen reacts with high temp and pressure, Carbon Monoxide (this is another product incomplete combustion and reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen), Carbon Dioxide (although this is essential to plantlife and there is already plnty in the atmosphere, this is a greenhouse gas and increasing it's levels can contribute to global warming).
Evaporative emissions - This is a big contributor to smog, as it is a result of the process of evaporation andthe particles are heavy and therefore stay close to the ground. There are several different ways of fuel evaporation: gas tank venting (the temperature rise of the vehicle leads to fuel evaporation, and before emission control this was simply vented into the atmosphere), running losses (gas vapors escaping from the hot engine) and refuelling losses (the empty space inside a tankis filled with hydrocarbon gases, and these are pushed out into the atmopshere when the tank is filled).
Life cycle emissions - These are emissions and polution created by the process of creating, designing and manufacturing the vehicles and vehicle manufacturing plants. This includes volatile solvents, synthetic materials.

Automobile emissions control - There are a range of methods of cutting down on toxic and environmentally damaging emissions produced by cars.
Controlling tailpipe emissions - This has been controlled by improving engine efficiency, through electronic ignition, fuel injection systems and electronic control units. Increasing vehicle efficiency has also helped, with new lightweight car designs, less air resistance, reduced rolling resistant and improvied powertrain efficiency. The driving efficiency improvements have helped, with improved driving technique, increased traffic flow and optimum cruising speeds. Catalytic converters are an important device invented to filter the exhuast emissions created by a car.
Evaporative emissions control - Vapors from the fuel tank are channeled into cannisters with activated carbon inside, absorbs the vapors and then desorbs them into the engine when the vehicle is running, where they are burned up. Fuelling caps, tank nozzles and fuelling station pumps have all been adjusted to ensure the minimum amount of vapors escape during refuelling.

Catalytic Converters - This is a device used on a combustion engine to cut down on harmful emissions and toxic products. First introduced in the seventies, they are still used on most motor vehicles and on many other pieces of equipment such as forklifts, mining equipment, buses, etc. Converters make an environment wherein harmful byproducts are converted into less toxic emissions (gases).
There are two types: Three-Way Catalytic Converters and Two-Way Catalytic Converters.
They are composed of several core parts; the core or substrate, the washcoat, and the catalyst itself (some precious metal).
For diesel engines, the most common Catalytic Converter is the oxidation catalyst. This uses oxygen to oxidise CO to CO2 and hydrocarbons into water and CO2. This can reduce visible emissions and disel smell, but not cut out NO. For this, selective catalytic reduction and NO traps are used (sometimes called NO absorbers).

The soot created from a diesel engine can be controlled with the use of a soot trap or diesel particulate filter. Diesel soot clogs can cause degeneration of engine performance, but the trap is designed to go through a loop of burning-off the soot and restoring the engine effectiveness.

Catalytic Converter temperature sensors - On many two-way converters, an inbuilt temperature sensor is in place to register when the temperature becomes to high for it to operate. This has become needless in the modern three-way converters, which can operate in temperatures up to 900/925 degrees C. Temperature sensors can also be used to monitor the effectiveness of the converter itself, as the temperature rises by 100 degrees C for very 1% of CO in the exhaust gas. Sensors are placed before the converter and after, and the difference is compared to get a reading on the temp rise within the converter core.

Catalytic Converter oxygen sensors - Also referred to as the lambda sensor, this device measures the oxygen levels, and if a change is made to the air-fuel and the readings do not change asa result, the operator is alerted. Most of these systems will wipe the current state on reset, so turning off the system will reset the sensor. These sensors will only work when at operating temperature, at whuch point they output a voltage to the computer, based on the level of oxygen in the exhaust gas.

Catalytic Converter criticisms - Catalytic converters have proven to be a reliable way to reduce noxious tailpipe emissions, however they do have some negative evironmental impacts during use which have been criticised in the past (and this is not including the emissions produced during their manufacture);
-- A catalytic converter requires the engine to run at the stoichiometric point, which increases the rate of fossil fuel consumption and therefore increases also the cardon emissions of the vehicle in question.
-- Catalytic converters are responsible for roughly 50% of the N2O (Nitrous Oxide - laughing gas!) released into the atmosphere, and although this is not harmful to humans it is a potential greenhouse gas and can account for about 7% of the greenhouse effect.
It could be said that converters have reduced city smog and harmful emissions at ground level, at the expense of global warming and earth-wide environmental damage.

Fuelsaver: The Fuel Saving Device - The Fuelsaver combines a tin-alloy catalyst and magnetic field to conserver fuel consumption and cut down on harmful emissions. Use the navigation at the top or bottom of the page to move around the site and find more information on this eco-friendly product.