8.

1 INTRODUCTION
In the
United States in 1996, transportation and electricity accounted for about 25% and 45% of
the total
primary energy consumption, respectively. The availability of both electric power and
transportation
in modern industrial societies is an important factor in human productivity, although the
efficiency
of their use may well be improvable.

In the United States, the manufacture, operation, and maintenance of highway vehicles
and
the refining and distribution of their fuels is pervasively regulated by both federal and
state governments.
Two of the regulatory objectives are of interest here: control of exhaust and evaporative
emissions and vehicle fuel economy.4 Other objectives include vehicle and passenger
safety, operator
competence, and owner fiscal liability. The regulation of emissions and fuel economy falls
principally upon the vehicle manufacturer, to a lesser extent on the fuel supplier, and
hardly at all
upon the vehicle owner, whose principal responsibility is to maintain control equipment
during the
vehicle lifetime.
The problem of air pollutant emissions from transportation vehicles is primarily that
associated
with the private passenger vehicle. Their emissions, principally carbon monoxide (CO),
oxides

of nitrogen (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and particulate matter (PM),
are
distributed geographically in proportion to vehicle usage, which is concentrated in urban
regions.

8.2 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES FOR

HIGHWAY VEHICLES

The most common engine in road vehicles is the gasoline-fueled spark ignition (SI)
reciprocating
engine.

The less common alternative,

the diesel-fueled compression ignition (CI) reciprocating engine, is more durable and
more
fuel efficient, but is more expensive to manufacture and provides less power per unit
weight (unless
turbocharged).5

. In the SI engine, a fuel–air mixture, prepared outside the cylinder, flows into
it prior to the inward compression stroke, eventually being ignited by a spark when the
piston
reaches its innermost position (called top center, TC). On the other hand, for the CI
engine, pure
air is ingested prior to the compression stroke and the fuel is sprayed into the air at the
end of compression, whereupon it ignites and burns quickly, without the necessity of a
spark, to produce
a pressure rise.

8.6 ELECTRIC DRIVE VEHICLES

In the earliest years of the development of the automobile, some were powered by
electric drive
motors energized by lead-acid storage batteries. Despite their advantages of no noise
and exhaust
emissions, their limited range and difficulty of recharging confined their use to urban fleet
delivery
vehicles.

8.6.1 Vehicles Powered by Storage Batteries

All these vehicles are powered by cooled AC induction motors drawing their power from
battery banks via power conditioning equipment. The traction motor is geared to the drive
wheels
at a fixed speed ratio, and it can regenerate a partial battery charge during periods of
vehicle
deceleration.

8.6.2 Hybrid Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles are those that combine conventional power sources (SI or CI engines)
with electric
motors to power the vehicle. In one extreme, the SI or CI engine can power a generator
that
delivers electric power to an electric traction motor; this system is used in railway
engines. The
more attractive system for automobiles is to attach an electric motor/generator to the
combustion
engine shaft, between the engine and the transmission. The motor/generator can store
energy in a
battery bank when excess power is available, during deceleration or when the power
need is less
than what the combustion engine can deliver, and can deliver extra power to the wheels
when it is
temporarily needed for acceleration or hill climbing. Such a system can level the peaks
and valleys
of power demand in the driving cycle, enabling the combustion engine to run closer to
average
driving cycle power and potentially better average engine efficiency.

8.6.3 Fuel Cell Vehicles

3.12, the oxidation of a fuel in a fuel cell has the potential to convert
a higher percentage of the fuel’s heating value to electrical work than does the typical
combustion
engine. The upper limit to this proportion is the ratio of the free energy change in the fuel
oxidation
reaction, _f , to the enthalpy change, or fuel heating value FHV. For hydrogen, this ratio is
0.83,
while for methane and methanol it is 0.92 (see Table 3.1); these upper limits are at least
double
what could be obtained by burning these fuels in a steam or gas turbine power plant.
However,
as Figure 3.10 illustrates, this high conversion efficiency is only reached at zero power
output; at
higher power the cell voltage declines nearly linearly with increasing cell current, resulting
in only
50% of the upper value being recoverable at maximum cell power (41.5% for hydrogen
and 46%
for methane and methanol). Still, these are higher fuel efficiencies than are obtainable in
vehicle SI
engines at full power; the comparison is even more favorable to the fuel cell at part load
because
the fuel cell efficiency increases at reduced load.

8.7 VEHICLE EMISSIONS

Early
in the pollutant regulatory history of the United States, it became obvious that it was more
effective
to require a few vehicle manufacturers to install control equipment on millions of new
vehicles
rather than to require millions of vehicle owners to try to reduce their own vehicle’s
emissions.

8.7.2.1 Reducing Engine-Out Emissions

Precise Control of Air/Fuel Ratio. Low values of the three principal pollutants—HC, CO,
and
NO—can be maintained if the air/fuel ratio is kept close to its stoichiometric value under
all
operating conditions. Fuel injection permits close control over fuel flow to each cylinder,
and it
can be computer-controlled to be proportionate to the intake air flow. An oxygen detector
placed
downstream of the exhaust ports provides a sensitive signal used to correct the fuel flow
so as to
home in on the desired air/fuel ratio. A further benefit of this control system is that it can
provide
optimum conditions for subsequent exhaust gas processing.
Exhaust Gas Recirculation. At the end of the exhaust stroke, when the exhaust valve has
closed
and the intake valve opens to admit a fresh charge of air–fuel mixture, the residual
volume of
the cylinder is filled with exhaust gas. This mixes with the incoming fresh charge, diluting
it
and reducing the temperature and pressure that is reached when that charge is fully
burned at the
beginning of the power stroke. Because the amount of NO formed is very sensitive to the
peak
temperature reached during combustion, we can reduce engine-out NO by diluting the
fresh charge
with even more exhaust gas than is normally encountered. This can be done by varying
the exhaust
and inlet valve timing or pumping exhaust gas from the exhaust system into the intake
system.
This is done at part load so the maximum engine torque and power are not compromised,
but is
acceptable because these maximum values are seldom utilized in standard driving
cycles.

8.7.2.2 Catalytic Converters for Exhaust

Simultaneous oxidation of CO and HC and reduction of NO in a catalytic converter

requires
very close control of the air/fuel ratio in the engine. Insufficient air will inhibit oxidation,
whereas too
much will prevent reduction. The window of air/fuel ratio that will remove equally all the
pollutants
is quite small, only a few percent change being allowed.

For a catalytic converter to work properly, every pollutant molecule must have the chance
to stick to the catalyst surface before it flows through the reactor. This requires that there
be a
large surface area coated with catalyst and that the flow passages surrounding this
surface be finely
divided. Either a honeycomb structure or a packed bed of catalyst-coated pebbles
satisfies this
requirement. Typically, the gas passage dimension is of the order of several millimeters,
and the
converter volume is about half the engine displacement. This allows the exhaust gas only
about
one engine cycle period to pass through the converter and be cleansed of most of the
pollutants.
When an engine is first started at ambient temperature (called a cold start), the converter
does
not work until it has been warmed by the hot engine exhaust gas to its “light-off”
temperature of about 250 ◦C.

Catalyst surfaces may be damaged by overheating if the exhaust gas contains excessive
unburned
fuel, which might occur if the air/fuel control system fails. Also, fuel impurities that leave
surface deposits may destroy the catalytic function. Lead additives to gasoline have been
phased
out to protect converters, and current U.S. fuel regulations will require removal of nearly
all sulfur
in the near future. Ultraclean fuels will ensure that converters will not deteriorate over the
useful
life of the vehicle.

8.7.2.5 Fuel Quality and Its Regulation

To achieve desirable anti-knock properties, fuel refiners change the composition of the
fuel,
utilizing more volatile components that increase vapor pressure and thereby evaporative
emissions
and are more prone to generate ozone. It has been found that the addition of oxygenated
fuel components,
such as methanol or ethanol, improves fuel performance and reduces exhaust emissions,
especially in older vehicles, so incentives to employ these additives have been utilized.
Another
fuel additive, MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), has been required by some states with
ozone
problems, but has been found to be environmentally harmful in fuel leaks to ground
water, in which
it is very soluble.
Natural gas is a clean vehicle fuel, yielding reduced exhaust emissions and no fuel vapor
problem
because it is very unreactive in photochemical ozone production. But storing natural gas
in a
vehicle, either as a compressed gas in high-pressure tanks or as a refrigerated liquid at −
253 ◦C,
is difficult and expensive, and it limits the vehicle range between fuel refills.

8.8 CONCLUSION
Among all transportation vehicles in the United States, light-duty passenger vehicles and
trucks, in
aggregate, are the predominant users of fuel and emitters of air pollutants.

A substantial gain in vehicle fuel efficiency is primarily a matter of improved vehicle

design
and only secondarily does it turn on the improvement of engine efficiency.

Improvements in engine fuel efficiency are closely constrained by the requirement to limit
exhaust pollutant emissions. In the past, engine fuel efficiency has gradually improved
while
exhaust emissions were greatly reduced. There

The most fuel-efficient current vehicle, the hybrid electric vehicle, can achieve two times
the
vehicle fuel efficiency of current reciprocating engine vehicles of similar size and
performance.
Utilizing

The battery-powered vehicle suffers from an inherent weight problem that limits its
equivalent
vehicle fuel efficiency and vehicle range. The fuel cell vehicle has a lesser weight
problem, but
its dependence upon hydrogen fuel, whether generated on board or at fuel suppliers,
complicates
the vehicle technology. The

economy. Furthermore, the very low emissions of these electric drive systems become a
less
valuable offsetting benefit as the competing conventional vehicles become cleaner.

engine.
Improvements to the engine and catalytic converter could reduce emissions further

standards. Improvements to CI engine emissions are

more difficult to achieve, and they may always have higher nitrogen oxide and particulate
matter
emissions than their SI counterparts.