Utilizing intake-air oxygen-enrichment technology to reduce cold- phase emissions

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:197806

Poola, R B; Ng, H K; Sekar, R R ^[1]; Baudino, J H ^[2]; Colucci, C P ^[3]

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1. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
2. Autoresearch Labs., Inc., Chicago, IL (United States)
3. National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)

Oxygen-enriched combustion is a proven, serious considered technique to reduce exhaust hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from automotive gasoline engines. This paper presents the cold-phase emissions reduction results of using oxygen-enriched intake air containing about 23% and 25% oxygen (by volume) in a vehicle powered by a spark-ignition (SI) engine. Both engineout and converter-out emissions data were collected by following the standard federal test procedure (FTP). Converter-out emissions data were also obtained employing the US Environmental Protection Agency`s (EPA`s) ``Off-Cycle`` test. Test results indicate that the engine-out CO emissions during the cold phase (bag 1) were reduced by about 46 and 50%, and HC by about 33 and 43%, using nominal 23 and 25% oxygen-enriched air compared to ambient air (21% oxygen by volume), respectively. However, the corresponding oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}) emissions were increased by about 56 and 79%, respectively. Time-resolved emissions data indicate that both HC and CO emissions were reduced considerably during the initial 127 s of the cold-phase FTP, without any increase in NO, emissions in the first 25 s. Hydrocarbon speciation results indicate that all major toxic pollutants, including ozone-forming specific reactivity factors, such as maximum incremental reactivity (NUR) and maximum ozone incremental reactivity (MOIR), were reduced considerably with oxygen-enrichment. Based on these results, it seems that using oxygen-enriched intake air during the cold-phase FTP could potentially reduce HC and CO emissions sufficiently to meet future emissions standards. Off-cycle, converter-out, weighted-average emissions results show that both HC and CO emissions were reduced by about 60 to 75% with 23 or 25% oxygen-enrichment, but the accompanying NO{sub x}, emissions were much higher than those with the ambient air.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 197806
• Report Number(s): ANL/ES/CP--87623; CONF-9510283--1; ON: DE96004811
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
AUTOMOBILES
CARBON MONOXIDE
CATALYTIC CONVERTERS
COMBUSTION KINETICS
EXHAUST GASES
HYDROCARBONS
INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES
OXYGEN ENRICHMENT