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In order to reduce CO2 emissions from automobiles, a highly fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle, the “Insight”, has been developed at Honda. Life cycle CO2 emissions are compared for the aluminum-bodied Insight, a simulated steel-bodied Insight, and a conventional gasoline vehicle. Life cycle CO2 emission is still dominated by the in-use fuel consumption. However, the contribution of CO2 emission from material use and processing could increase when the vehicle fuel consumption is greatly reduced. The use of recycled aluminum reduces CO2 emission from the aluminum-bodied Insight.

The needs of the non-internal combustion engine for the automobile have been increasingly emphasized due to the seriousness of the air pollution in major cities and the global warming. However, such power plant technologies are generally considered to be still far away from the full commercialization as technical issues including infrastructure and cost are still remaining to be solved, so the substantial emission cleanup through the market penetration requires a long time for the realization. For the mean time, attempts are made to investigate the maximum potential of the internal combustion engine for reduction of both exhaust emissions and CO2 focusing on Honda''s near-zero emission Zero Level Emission Vehicle (ZLEV) technology.

The College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology at the University of California, Riverside and Honda Motor Company are conducting a cooperative research program to study the emission characteristics and evaluate the environmental impact of advanced technology vehicles designed to have emission rates at, or below, the California ULEV standard. This program involves a number of technical challenges relating to instrumentation capable of measuring emissions at these low levels and utilizing this instrumentation to gather data under realistic conditions that will allow assessments of the environmental impact of these advanced vehicle technologies. This paper presents results on the performance and suitability of a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) based on-board measurement system developed principally by Honda R&D for this task. This system has been designed to simultaneously measure vehicle exhaust and ambient roadway pollutant concentrations.

ZLEV was accomplished by applying the Three-Stage Emission Management System, utilizing ultra-precise combustion and exhaust gas conversion control technology, and dividing the operation into three-stages of just after engine start, the warm-up stage, and normal running. These individual component technologies include improving engine combustion (high swirl combustion by variable valve timing and lift) and performing fuel control optimization during engine startup to reduce unburned HC emission, quick catalyst activation (engine control and catalyst improvements), HC adsorption of a hybrid catalyst (catalyst improvement and desorption conversion control), and high precision air-fuel ratio feed back control (catalyst condition predictive control, and others).

An ambient air quality study was carried out in the South Coast Air Basin in California in the summer of 1997. Non-methane hydrocarbon concentrations in the air to which clean air vehicles were exposed on roadways were studied by both computational simulations and experiments. Compared with conventional technologies of air quality simulations, a micro-scale model of ambient pollutants on roadways was used. Experimental observations showed that proposed model gave improved level of roadway concentrations.

The weight-saving requirement for automobiles has become more important since the increase in the environmental issues. Previously, in order to produce a lighter engine, an aluminum block with cast-iron liners and a hypereutectic aluminum-silicon alloy block has been developed as an alternatives to cast- iron blocks. In a new approach, we developed a new aluminum engine block which has the cylinder bore surface reinforced with short hybrid fibers of alumina and carbon, to achieve a further weight reduction. A previous paper, SAE890557, dealt with the characteristics of the metal matrix composite (MMC), the MMC engine block's technical advantages and outlined the production technology. The most important factor in the application of composite materials for mass-produced parts is the development of the appropriate technology, which ensure stable quality and high production efficiency.

The weight-saving requirements for automobiles are important. In order to produce a lighter engine, an aluminum block with cast-iron liners and a hypereutectic aluminum-silicon alloy block have been developed. (1)*, (2), (3), (4), (5), (6) We developed a new aluminum engine block which has the cylinder bore surface structure reinforced with short ceramic fiber. We also established technology suitable for mass-production including a fiber preform process and a non-destructive inspection method. In this paper, the optimum properties and production technology of MMC engine blocks are introduced. A portion of the paper is dedicated to the results of a comparison study between a new light-weight aluminum engine block, a hypereutectic aluminum-silicon engine block and an aluminum engine block with cast-iron liners.