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In order to control diesel engine emission, several after-treatment technologies have been studied and developed to reduce particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides. Such reduction is making it hard to measure the mass of such pollutants. In the present study, a new method to analyze nitrogen compounds in vehicle particulate has been described. The method is based on the technique for separate analysis of SOF, soot and sulfates in particulate, which has been previously reported by the authors. The new method utilizes oxidation process in a furnace at high temperature and a chemiluminescence detector (CLD) to measure generated NO and NO2. In this paper, principle and concept of the method has been described. In addition, feasibility of the method for analyzing nitrogen compounds in vehicle PM has been discussed, with practical experiments using modeled samples and actual particulate.

Fuel cell is one of the promising candidates for low emission and high efficiency power plant for the next generation vehicles. Currently, general discussions are focused on from where and how to supply hydrogen to the fuel cell stack in a vehicle. Two major concepts are presented; (1) storing pure hydrogen on-board and (2) use of hydrocarbon as a fuel in combination with on-board fuel reformer system to extract hydrogen. Although the reformer idea seems to be rather complicated than the pure hydrogen, the fuel reformer system is very much demanded, due to the energy density of liquid fossil fuel and availability of fuel supply infrastructure. In the development of the fuel reformer system, gas composition measurements are required to achieve (1) efficient hydrogen extraction, (2) low carbon monoxide concentration to protect PEM stack, and (3) low emission.

Due to a need for a robust measurement system for on-board real-world vehicle emission measurement, a heated ND-IR(h-NDIR) technique has been developed and evaluated for its potential. The h-NDIR is capable of measuring CO and CO2 under wet-based condition by correcting interference from co-existing gas with an algorithm specially developed for the present study. The resulting H2O interference to the CO2 measurement is less than 0.01vol% for zero point and less than ±1% for span points and that of CO measurement is less than 0.001vol% for zero point and less than ±2% for span point against 0 to12vol% H2O. An on-board emission measurement system using the h-NDIR in combination with an Annubar® flow meter and an air to fuel ratio sensor has been evaluated. The result reveal correlation between the present system and a chassis test system to be within 7% for fuel consumption, within 5% for CO mass emission, and within 6% for CO2 mass emission.

A new hydrogen analyzer using a magnetic sector mass spectrometer (MS) has been developed to perform continuous analysis of hydrogen gas concentrations in exhaust gas. This method is insensitive to substances other than hydrogen gas ions and so is not easily affected by the presence of other molecules. In addition, this analyzer has a fast response compared to conventional hydrogen analyzers, which employ other measurement principles. The T90 response time is about 1 second. The minimum sensitivity is few tens of ppm. Because of these characteristics, the sector MS method has significant potential for analyzing hydrogen concentrations in exhaust gas continuously. In this study, the authors performed continuous emissions measurement of several kinds of gasoline engine vehicle in a chassis test cell using the hydrogen gas analyzer in combination with other gas analyzers.

For the purposes of environmental protection, regulations of particulate matter are becoming more stringent year by year. Accordingly, engine systems have been improved and particulate emissions are much lower compared to those of previous engine systems. The automotive industry generally uses a gravimetric method to quantify particulate emissions. It is becoming increasingly difficult to quantify particulate emissions using a conventional gravimetric balance because the amount of particulates continues to decline. In order to overcome this problem, a new method has been developed that uses gas analyzers to measure potentially as much as several micrograms of particulates. Furthermore, with this method, it is possible to simultaneously analyze volatile organic fraction (VOF), soot, and sulfates. The particles collected by a quartz filter are placed in a furnace at a specific temperature, and VOF and sulfates are vaporized in an inert atmosphere.

Particulate matter (PM) emission from vehicles is one of the biggest issues in terms of environmental protection and influence to human body. Thus, a variety of measurement technologies have been develop so far. Currently, a gravimetric method is most commonly used in the automotive industry, partially because it is specified in the regulations. This method uses a combination of a dilution tunnel and a filter that collects the PM from the diluted sample gas with subsequent weighting by a micro balance. However, since this technique is a batch measurement, it is impossible to determine at what point of the emissions test the Soot, SOF (Soluble Organic Fraction), and the total PM are emitted. Thus the demand for real-time PM measurement under transient test conditions has increased.

Regulatory compliance measurements for vehicle emissions are generally performed in well equipped test facilities using chassis dynamometers that simulate on-road conditions. There is also a requirement for obtaining accurate information from vehicles as they operate on the road. An on-board system has been developed to measure real-time mass emission of NOx, fuel consumption, road load, and engine output. The system consists of a dedicated data recorder and a variety of sensors that measure air-to-fuel ratios, NOx concentrations, intake air flow rates, and ambient temperature, pressure and humidity. The system can be placed on the passenger seat and operate without external power. This paper describes in detail the configuration and signal processing techniques used by the on-board measurement system. The authors explain the methods and algorithms used to obtain (1) real-time mass emission of NOx, (2) real-time fuel consumption, (3) road load, and (4) engine output.

The environmental effects of particulate matter (PM) emissions from vehicles are an increasing concern to those concerned with air quality. A variety of technologies have been developed to measure exhaust particulates. The automotive industry generally uses the gravimetric method to quantify particulate emissions. This method uses a combination of a dilution tunnel and filter to collect PM from the diluted sample gas. The collected PM is later weighed on a microbalance. Because this technique is a batch measurement, it is not possible to determine at what point of an emissions test drive cycle the soot, soluble organic fraction (SOF) and total PM are emitted. A more accurate characterization of PM emissions will require real-time PM measurement under transient test conditions.

Numerical models of three kinds of mass emission measurement systems, i.e. the constant volume sampler (CVS) system, the mini-diluter system and the direct modal-mass measurement system have been built on PC using a software called Mathematica®. The models are capable of simulating gas compounds concentration in the CVS bags and mass emitted during a test, using the time trend exhaust emission patterns, the exhaust gas flow rate pattern, and initial setting values like dilution ratio. Major error factors in the measurement systems, such as H2O condensation, gas compounds present in ambient air, delay and smoothing of the gas stream, and performance of the analyzers, can also be introduced to the calculation. Using the models, various techniques to optimize the sampling system are quantitatively compared.

The performance of a soft ionization mass spectrometer (MS) has been investigated using nearly one hundred hydrocarbon components and nine inorganic components. Based on a list of typical hydrocarbon emissions from automotive exhaust, synthesized samples have been used to discuss the cross-sensitivity of the target components. The system has been shown to measure hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) such as 1,3-butadiene, benzene and toluene in the vehicle exhaust. As a result, the technique will prove to be very useful in emissions monitoring in the development of low emissions vehicles.

The next generation of diesel engines will require substantial reductions in particulate matter (PM) emissions. In addition to strict regulations, one of the major problems in the development is the lack of sophisticated real-time PM analyzers. The current PM measurement technology consists of a dilution tunnel and filter weighing technique that was developed before the 1980s.(1) Such technology has reached its limit for today's diesel exhaust monitoring requirements in terms of response time and sensitivity. A flame ionization detector (FID), commonly used for measuring hydrocarbons, is proposed as a new analyzer for PM. In the past, spike signals observed from the FID when measuring diesel exhaust have been considered noise and a lot effort has been spent to reduce such interference from the slower FID signal. However, given a fast response time FID, these spike signals could be used to represent PM concentration in the sample.

Particulate in the automotive emission gas is, whether the source of the engine is gasoline or diesel, a continuous target for the analysis because of its harmful feature to the environment, however, the actual measurement has been requiring various complicated procedures with lengthy time. The experiment is given by a measuring device which enables the direct measurement of a single particulate individually based on Helium Microwave Induced Plasma (MIP). This new device consists of three main parts: 1) the introducing section to induce a particulate on the filter as diffusing separately by He sonic velocity, 2) the exciting section with He plasma torch of high energy, and 3) the detecting section with 4 monochromators. Also, the automatic calibration function assures the accurate measurement, saving the manual calibration beforehand. The analyzer allows to measure the particles one by one. This consequence allows the high precision results with a fast, easy operation.

Investigation of operating parameters have been carried out for an FTIR system dedicated for emission analysis. Discussions are focused on the key parameters, such as spectral resolution, gas cell dimensions, quantification algorithm, and sample gas treatment. The spectral resolution has to be determined so that the scan rate is high enough to make transient analysis, the minimum detection limit is low enough to carry out high sensitivity measurement, and no cross sensitivity can be recognized. A trade-off relationship between the response and the sensitivity exists for the gas cell design. Small volume of the cell is desirable when gas replacement is considered. On the other hand, the sensitivity can be increased by enlarging the cell volume to obtain long optical path. Both quantification algorithm and the sample gas treatment have to be well arranged to obtain accurate concentration values of the gas compounds sampled from the tailpipe.

A detailed description of flow rate measurement technique for automotive exhaust is presented. The system consists of a sector field mass spectrometer for continuous analysis of helium concentration in the exhaust gas and a mass flow controller which injects pure helium at a constant rate into the intake manifold of an engine. The exhaust flow rate can be calculated by helium injection flow rate dividing by the concentration since the concentration value is a measure of the ratio of helium dilution taking place in the engine. The advantages of the technique consist of (1) no disturbance from strong pulsed flow present when an engine is idling, (2) easy time alignment with gas analyzers, and (3) measurement of dry based flow rate that can be directly multiplied by dry based gas concentration to obtain mass emission rate.

A high speed gas chromatography system has been developed for automotive emissions measurement. The system is capable of quantifying hydrocarbons from C2 to C12 compounds. The separation time required for an analysis is only five minutes. Major technical challenges were (1) tandem quick heat cold traps, (2) four parallel ovens design, and (3) the mid-point back flush technique. Demonstrations of the system have been done using FTP75 cold transient phase. The results indicate that the system is well suited for hydrocarbon speciation measurement with very simple and quick operations.

Two new techniques have been applied to FTIR emission analysis which add significant potential to automotive emission measurement. One of these is the use of the mathematical multivariate analysis which is called the partial least squares method. This spectrum discrimination technique, in combination with high resolution spectrum data, enables superior analysis for heavy-overlapping species in the emission. The other technique is a flow conditioned gas sampling cell which is designed especially for real time emission measurement. The flow in the gas cell has been analyzed with computer simulation and the gas cell has a flow conditioner inside with a 10 meter optical path. Seven seconds of 90 percent gas replacement time can be achieved with this cell. As a result, highly accurate realtime data can be obtained with relatively fast response. In this paper, spectrum factors extracted from overlapping species and quantification simulations are shown using standard gases.

This paper proposes and evaluates methods for measuring the driving capability of a robotic driver for automotive emissions testing. In order to evaluate driving capabilities, variables such as actual speed, intake manifold pressure, accelerator pedal position, brake pedal position, and others are measured while the driver repeats a specific speed pattern. The values of the data between successive runs are statically analyzed to determine what is referred to as the residual deviation. The residual deviation is then used as an “index of repeatability” to evaluate the repeatability of emissions tests results. Additionally, the relationship between target speed and actual speed among runs is evaluated using similar techniques to generate an “index of traceability.” Tests were run on several drivers.

The objective of the work was to develop a fast response infrared analyzer that makes possible the cyclic measurement of exhaust gas concentrations from internal combustion engines. The new analyzer achieves T90 response time of less than 30 milliseconds and is capable of measuring CO, CO2 and HC (Hydrocarbons) simultaneously. Another feature of the analyzer is its' capability to measure simultaneously from multiple sample points, i.e., one optical bench with a maximum of four sample cells can measure CO, CO2 and HC simultaneously from four different sources. Results from a multiple cylinder engine show that this analyzer can be an effective tool for analysis and diagnosis of internal combustion engine exhaust products.

Distribution of injected fuel droplets, total hydrocarbon concentration and soot concentration in the combustion chamber of a diesel engine with a swirl chamber have been measured microscopically with regard to the time and the space by means of optical method. As a result of this study, effect of the swirl flow on atomized droplet distribution, relation between the droplets and hydrocarbon concentration, and relation between the change in concentration gradient of hydrocarbon with the time and the velocity of the swirl flow, and effect of non-luminous flame on the time of heat release rate raising period have been obtained. And from spatial distributions of hydrocarbon concentration, soot concentration, and local temperature in the combustion chamber at each time, the locational characteristics of soot generation are clarified. Further, effects of hydrocarbon and local temperature on soot generation have been considered.

This report describes a new, maintenance-free exhaust gas analysis system for automobile quality control. It incorporates non-dispersive infrared. (NDIR) gas analyzers employing a cross-flow modulation method which provides virtually drift-free performance and eliminates the need for optical adjustment, Analyzer modulation is by means of alternating the flow of sample gas and reference gas into two cells with a rotary valve of simple construction. Microcomputers are used for system control and to process the data. This system measures oxides of nitrogen (NOx), total hydrocarbon (THC) and carbon monoxide/dioxide (CO/CO2) with three analyzers. Full scale ranges of 50 ppm for NOx and 20 ppm for THC are feasible with cells merely 35 mm long. In each case the signal-to-noise ratio is 100. In actual operation, the system drift was so low that it required no span calibration over a period of three months.