Search Results

Tier 2 Emission standards enacted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) require substantial emission reductions for new vehicles, including those with diesel engines. The standards are fuel neutral, and all light duty vehicles must eventually meet a fleet averaged emission level of Bin 5. To improve the emission capability for diesel engines, several advanced technologies have been investigated. These technologies include: common rail FIE with multi-injection capability, enhanced cooled EGR system with increased flow capability, variable geometry turbo charger, and a lower compression ratio piston. A new combustion approach using premixed diesel combustion was applied in the low load area for improving NOx and soot emissions significantly in the FTP-75 test cycle. Applying these technologies, engine out NOx was substantially reduced while maintaining similar soot levels.

In this paper the concept of fashioning a microdetector for laser induced fluorescence based on laser diode excitation is discussed. A plan is discussed to demonstrate this concept by replacing the bench-top detectors of published microelectrochromatographic experiments with a detector based upon a miniature diode laser. The concept of providing autonomous power for the diode laser with microbatteries is discussed and shown to be feasible. Autonomous power for a remote sensor based on microelectrophoresis, a diode laser detector and microbatteries is discussed.

Molten salts are ionic, nonflammable, nonvolatile liquids with high ionic conductivity, oxidation voltage greater than 5 V vs. Li and high thermal stability (>300°C). So far the application of molten salts in batteries has been limited to those operating at relatively high temperature (>150°C). Rechargeable lithium-ion and lithium batteries have attained wide acceptance in both commercial and military applications. However, most of the solvents used in these cells are volatile and flammable; hence, they represent a significant safety hazard, especially, when operated at higher temperatures. Therefore the application of molten salts as electrolytes in lithium and lithium-ion cells containing LiMn2O4 (cathode) was investigated. The preliminary results show that rechargeable lithium and lithium-ion cells can be constructed and operated using molten salts as electrolytes. Test cells were cycled at ambient temperature and at higher temperature (55°C).