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From the energy security and CO2 reduction point of view, much attention has been paid to the usage of bio-fuel. Recently, highly concentrated ethanol is used in some areas (“E85”; 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline in North America and Sweden, and “ethanol”; 93% ethanol and 7% water in Brazil). In these regions, Flexible Fuel Vehicles FFVs are being introduced that are capable of using fuels with a wide range of ethanol concentrations. Advantages of highly concentrated ethanol in internal combustion engine applications are higher thermal efficiency obtained due to higher octane number, and a reduction of nitrogen oxides due to lower combustion temperatures On the other hand, the latent heat of vaporization for ethanol is greater than gasoline, causing poor cold startability and high NMOG emissions. This paper examines the effect of highly concentrated ethanol on exhaust emissions at cold start in a SI- engine.

One primary result of the reduction of platinum group metals (PGM) within a catalytic converter is the decline in NOx conversion efficiency. This paper hypothesizes that the primary factor of this decline to be hydrocarbon (HC) poisoning. To maintain high NOx conversion efficiency as the PGM reduces, Rh activation improvement becomes significant to overcome the HC poisoning. Analysis of the Rh deterioration mechanism found that it is effective to separately arrange Rh and CeO2 on the converter, avoiding the Rh deactivation. By this improvement, we improved the catalyst activity at less than 25% of the original Rh loading.