Presentation topic :HC,CO

and Nox emission

INSTRUCTOR:Engr.ALTAF
Subject:IC.Engine
Mechanical 7th

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 Group members
• Haroon Ashraf(15-ME-05)
• Abdul Basit(15-ME-04)
• Muhammad Usman(15-ME-17)
• Idrees akbar(15-ME-27)

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 Historical Perspective

• During the 1940s air pollution as a problem was first recognized in the Los
Angeles basin.

• Two causes of this were the large population density and the natural weather
conditions. Smoke and other pollutants combined with fog to form smog.

• In 1966 HC and CO emission limits were introduced in California.

• All of North America usually follows California’s lead (all US in 1968).

• By making more fuel efficient engines and with the use of exhaust after
treatment, emissions per vehicle of HC, CO, and NOx were reduced by
about 95% during the 1970s and 1980s.

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 Pollutant Formation and Control

• All IC engines produce undesirable emissions as a result of combustion.

• The emissions of concern are unburned hydrocarbons (HC), carbon

monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen such as nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide
(NOx), sulfur dioxide, and solid carbon particulates.

• These emissions pollute the environment and contribute to acid rain, smog
odors, and respiratory and other health problems.

• HC emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles include a number of toxic

substances such as benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
1,3-butadiene and three aldehydes (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein).

• Carbon dioxide is an emission that is not regulated but is the primary

greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.

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 Nitrogen Oxides emission

• NOx includes nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)

• In SI engines the dominant component of NOx is NO

• Forms as a result of dissociation of molecular nitrogen and oxygen.

• Since the activation energy of the critical elementary reaction O+N2→NO+N

is high the reaction rate is very temperature dependent, w''′ ~ exp (-E/RT)

• Therefore NO is only formed at high temperatures and the reaction rate is

relatively slow.

• At temperatures below 2000K the reaction rate is extremely slow, so NO

formation not important.

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 Hydrocarbons emission

Hydrocarbon emissions result from the presence of unburned fuel in the

engine exhaust.

However, some of the exhaust hydrocarbons are not found in the fuel, but are
hydrocarbons derived from the fuel whose structure was altered do to
chemical reaction that did not go to completion. For example: acetaldehyde,
formaldehyde, 1,3 butadiene, and benzene all classified as toxic emissions.

About 9% of the fuel supplied to the engine is not burned during the normal
combustion phase of the expansion stroke.

Only 2% ends up in the exhaust the rest is consumed during the other
three strokes.

As a consequence hydrocarbon emissions cause a decrease in the thermal

efficiency, as well as being an air pollutant.

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 Carbon Monoxide emission

• Carbon monoxide appears in the exhaust of fuel rich running engines.

• For fuel rich mixtures there is insufficient oxygen to convert all the carbon in
the fuel to carbon dioxide.

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 Carbon Monoxide emission

The C-O-H system is more or less at equilibrium during combustion and

expansion.

Late in the expansion stroke when the cylinder temperature gets down to
around 1700K the chemistry in the C-O-H system becomes rate limited and
starts to deviate from equilibrium.

In practice it is often assumed that the C-O-H system is in equilibrium until

the exhaust valve opens at which time it freezes instantaneously.

The highest CO emission occurs during engine start up (warm up) when the
engine is run fuel rich to compensate for poor fuel evaporation.

Since CI engines run lean overall, emission of CO is generally low and not
considered a problem.

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 Emission Control

The current emission limits for HC, CO and NOx have been reduced to 4%,
4% and 10% of the uncontrolled pre-1968 values, respectively.

Three basic methods used to control engine emissions:

1) Engineering of combustion process - advances in fuel injectors, oxygen

sensors, and on-board computers.

2) Optimizing the choice of operating parameters - two NOx control measures

that have been used in automobile engines since 1970s are spark retard and
EGR.

3) After treatment devices in the exhaust system - catalytic converter

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 Catalytic Converter

All catalytic converters are built in a honeycomb or pellet geometry to expose

the exhaust gases to a large surface made of one or more noble metals:
platinum, palladium and rhodium.

Rhodium used to remove NO and platinum used to remove HC and CO.

Lead and sulfur in the exhaust gas severely inhibit the operation of a catalytic
converter (poison). 10
 Catalytic Converter for Diesels

For Diesel engines catalytic converters are used to control HC and CO, but
reduction of NO emissions is poor because the engine runs lean in order to
avoid excess smoke.

The NO is controlled by retarding the fuel injection from 20o to 5o before TC in

order to reduce the peak combustion temperature.

This has a slight negative impact, increases the fuel consumption by about 15%.

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