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Shanghai had about a half million gasoline powered motorbikes in 2000. The motorbikes have become a significant contributor to ambient air pollution in Shanghai. This study selected an electric bike (e-bike) as a potential replacement for gasoline powered motorbikes. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out for the two systems in terms of energy utilization and environment implications. LCA results indicated that e-bike is not better than the motorbike in all environment categories. The e-bike consumes less energy than the motorbike during its life cycle, and emits less GWP into air, and less BOD, COD, DS and HC into water. On the other hand, it generates more solid wastes, acidification potential, and HM than the motorbike, due to electric power production. Therefore, the Shanghai government should advocate advanced batteries and clean coal fired power plant technologies while implementing an electrical vehicle plan.

Low-cost automotive catalysts have been developed that contain 20-30% of the precious metals (7-15 g/ft3) commonly used in conventional catalysts, while providing a high efficiency of emissions control and durability for vehicles operating in emerging market countries. These catalysts were reformulated by replacing the Pd, Pt and Rh mixtures with optimized mixtures of rare-earth oxides (REOs). Laboratory studies demonstrated that these aged REO catalysts (80,000 km) with unleaded Chinese fuels reduce vehicle emissions by an average of 99%, 80% and 92% for CO, HC and NOx, respectively, when operating as a three-way catalyst in a closed-loop control mode at a stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratio. REO catalysts with 7.6g/ft3 of precious metals were tested on in-use Chinese Volkswagen Santanas with carbureted engine. Several strategies for air injection were tested on these vehicles.

This book presents an analysis on the potential effects of globalization on the automotive industry and the environment. Energy challenges, market economy growth, and population dynamics are considered. The authors also present future scenarios for transportation technologies to meet the ever growing global demand for transportation of goods and services while minimizing energy and environmental impacts and maximizing cost, value and widespread acceptance.

A life-cycle assessment (LCA) has been developed to help compare the economic, environmental and energy (EEE) impacts of converting coal to automotive fuels in China. This model was used to evaluate the total economic cost to the customer, the effect on the local and global environments, and the energy efficiencies for each fuel option. It provides a total accounting for each step in the life cycle process including the mining and transportation of coal, the conversion of coal to fuel, fuel distribution, all materials and manufacturing processes used to produce a vehicle, and vehicle operation over the life of the vehicle. The seven fuel scenarios evaluated in this study include methanol from coal, byproduct methanol from coal, methanol from methane, methanol from coke oven gas, gasoline from coal, electricity from coal, and petroleum to gasoline and diesel. The LCA results for all fuels were compared to gasoline as a baseline case.

A proportional sampler for vehicle feedgas and tailpipe emissions has been developed that extracts a small, constant fraction of the total exhaust flow during rapid transient changes in engine speed. Heated sampling lines are used to extract samples either before or after the catalytic converter. Instantaneous exhaust mass flow is measured by subtracting the CVS dilution air volume from the total CVS volume. This parameter is used to maintain a constant dilution ratio and proportional sample. The exhaust sample is diluted with high-purity air or nitrogen and is delivered into Tedlar sample bags. These transient test cycle weighted feedgas samples can be collected for subsequent analysis of hydrocarbons and oxygenated hydrocarbon species. This “mini-diluter” offers significant advantages over the conventional CVS system. The concentration of the samples are higher than those collected from the current CVS system because the dilution ratio can be optimized depending on the fuel.

Analytical procedures for the speciation of hydrocarbons and oxygenates (ethers, aldehydes, ketones and alcohols) in vehicle evaporative and tailpipe exhaust emissions have been improved for Phase II studies of the Auto/Oil Air Quality Improvement Research Program (AQIRP). One gas chromatograph (GC) was used for measurement of C1-C4 species and a second GC for C4-C12 species. Detection limits for this technique are 0.005 ppm C or 0.1 mg/mile exhaust emission level at a chromatographic signal-to-noise ratio of 3/1, a ten-fold improvement over the Phase I technique. The Phase I library was modified to include additional species for a total of 154 species. A 23-component gas standard was used to establish a calibration scale for automated computer identification of species. This method identifies 95±3% of the total hydrocarbon mass measured by GC for a typical exhaust sample. Solid adsorbent cartridges or impingers were used to collect aldehydes and ketones.

Research was undertaken to characterize the potential differences in the chemical composition of precatalyst and postcatalyst exhaust gases from engines fueled with methanol/gasoline blends, (20/80 volume %-designated as M-20) pure alcohol and gasoline. Results were developed from both steady-state engine tests and transient CVS vehicle tests. A heated CVS system was developed for sampling emissions to minimize significant oxygenated hydrocarbon sample losses commonly encountered in the standard CVS sampling procedure. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry(GC/MS) was used for characterizing the emissions. Minimal losses of methanol emissions were found using the described sampling and analysis system. The only significant qualitative differences observed in the hydrocarbon emissions generated by engines burning pure Indolene clear compared to the M-20 fuel was the significant presence of unburned methanol and in some cases traces of ethanol in the exhaust of the M-20 fueled vehicle.