Engines, Motors, and

Mobility
[ME F317]
BITS Pilani Dr. Saket Verma
Department of Mechanical Enginerring
Pilani Campus
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Lecture No.: 20-21

Engine Emission and Control
Introduction

• Emissions are generated in the

combustion process of automobile
and other IC engines.
• These emissions pollute the
environment and contribute to global
warming, acid rain, smog, odors, and
respiratory and other health problems.
• The major causes of these emissions
are non-stoichiometric combustion,
dissociation of nitrogen, and
impurities (IMPERFECT
COMBUSTION) in the fuel and air.

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Introduction

• The major emissions are

hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide
(CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx),
sulfur, and solid carbon particulates
(PM).
• Aftertreatment of the exhaust gases to
reduce emissions is very important.
This consists mainly of the use of
thermal or catalytic converters and
particulate traps

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 Engine
emissions

Non-exhaust Exhaust
emissions emissions

HC
HC CO2 & CO
From fuel tank
Crankcase blowby
NO & NO2 SO2 & SO3
Carburetor
(NOx) (SOx)
Additional
in Diesel
Particulates/
Soots/ Smoke
engines

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HYDROCARBONS (HC)

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Introduction

• Exhaust gases leaving the combustion chamber of an SI engine may

contain up to 6000 ppm of hydrocarbon components, the equivalent of 1-
1.5 % of the fuel.
• About 40% of this is unburned gasoline fuel components. The other 60%
consists of partially reacted components that were not present in the
original fuel.
• These consist of small non-equilibrium molecules which are formed when
large fuel molecules break up (thermal cracking) during the combustion
reaction.
• When hydrocarbon emissions get into the atmosphere, they act as irritants
and odorants; some are carcinogenic.

• Causes of HC Emissions: Nonstoichiometric Air-Fuel Ratio.

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 Fuel
compositi
on

Engine
Fuel-air
HC type and
mixture
geometry

Engine
operating
paramete
rs 8

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 Emissions from an CI engine as a
function of equivalence ratio.
Emissions from an SI engine as a 9
function of equivalence ratio.

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Sources of HC emission from
engine
• With a fuel-rich mixture there is not enough oxygen to react with all the carbon,
resulting in high levels of HC and CO in the exhaust products.
• This is particularly true in engine startup, when the air-fuel mixture is purposely
made very rich. It is also true to a lesser extent during rapid acceleration under
load.
• If AF is too lean poorer combustion occurs, again resulting in HC emissions.
The extreme of poor combustion for a cycle is total misfire. This occurs more
often as AF is made more lean.
Incomplete Combustion
• Even when the fuel and air entering an engine are at the ideal stoichiometric
mixture, perfect combustion does not occur and some HC ends up in the
exhaust.
• Incomplete mixing
• Flame quenching at walls
• High levels of EGR

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Sources of HC emission from
engine
Crevice Volumes
• During the compression stroke and early part of the combustion process, air and
fuel are compressed into the crevice volume of the combustion chamber at high
pressure.
• As much as 3% of the fuel in the chamber can be forced into this crevice
volume.
Leak Past the Exhaust Valve
• As pressure increases during compression and combustion, some air-fuel is
forced into the crevice volume around the edges of the exhaust valve and
between the valve and valve seat. A small amount even leaks past the valve into
the exhaust manifold.
Valve Overlap.
• During valve overlap, both the exhaust and intake valves are open, creating a
path where air-fuel intake can flow directly into the exhaust.
Deposits on Combustion Chamber Walls
Oil on Combustion Chamber Walls.

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CI engine

CI Engines.
• Because they operate with an overall fuel-lean equivalence ratio, CI
engines have only about one-fifth the HC emissions of an SI engine.
• In general, a CI engine has about a 98% combustion efficiency, with only about
2% of the HC fuel being emissions.
• Some local spots in the combustion chamber will be too lean to combust
properly, and other spots will be too rich, with not enough oxygen to consume
all the fuel.
sac volume
• A small amount of liquid fuel will be trapped on the tip of the nozzle.
• This sac volume of liquid fuel evaporates very slowly because it is surrounded
by a fuel-rich environment and, once the injector nozzle closes
• CI engines also have HC emissions for some of the same reasons as SI
engines do (i.e., wall deposit absorption, oil film absorption, crevice volume,
etc.).

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HC
•Irritant
•Odorant
•Carcinogenic
•Photochemical smog
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CARBON MONOXIDE (CO)

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Introduction

• Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, poisonous gas generated

in an engine when it is operated with a fuel-rich equivalence ratio.
• When there is not enough oxygen to convert all carbon to CO2,
some fuel does not get burned and some carbon ends up as CO.
• Typically, SI engine: 0.2 - 5% CO (CI engine operates lean and
hence very small CO emissions)
• It also shows loss of Chemical energy. (CO is significant calorific
value- 11.79 MJ/m3 (H2 – 10 MJ/m3))
• CO emissions are higher in working conditions such as starting
and acceleration.

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OXIDES OF NITROGEN (NOx)

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NOx

• Most of this will be majorly nitrogen oxide (NO), with a small

amount of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and traces of other nitrogen-
oxygen combinations.
• These are all grouped together as NOx (or NOx), with x
representing some suitable number.
• NOx is a very undesirable emission, and regulations that restrict
the allowable amount continue to become more stringent.
• Released NOx reacts in the atmosphere to form ozone and is one
of the major causes of photochemical smog.
Source of NOx:
• nitrogen in the air
• fuel blends, NH3, NC, and HCN (minor degree).

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photochemical smog

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Nox reactions

• There are a number of possible reactions that form NO, all of

which are probably occurring during the combustion process and
immediately after. These include but are not limited to:

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Nox reactions

• At the very high temperatures that occur in the combustion

chamber of an engine, some diatomic nitrogen (N2) breaks down
to monatomic nitrogen (N) which is reactive:
• chemical equilibrium constant for above reaction is highly
dependent on temperature, with a much more significant amount
of N generated in the 2500-3000 K temperature .
• Maximum NOx is formed at a slightly lean equivalence ratio of
about = 0.95.
• At this condition flame temperature is still very high, and in
addition, there is an excess of oxygen that can combine with the
nitrogen to form various oxides.
• In addition to temperature, the formation of NOx depends on
pressure, air-fuel ratio, and combustion time within the cylinder,

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Chemical Equilibrium
constants

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Time dependence

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Generation of Nox in an engine as function of combustion time.

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PARTICULATES

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PARTICULATES

• The exhaust of CI engines contains solid carbon soot particles that

are generated in the fuel-rich zones within the cylinder during
combustion.
• These are seen as exhaust smoke and are an undesirable odorous
pollution.
• Maximum density of particulate emissions occurs when the engine
is under load at WOT.
• Soot particles are clusters of solid carbon spheres, diameters from
10 nm to 80 nm (1 nm = 10-9 m), with most within the range of 15-
30 nm.
• The spheres are solid carbon with HC and traces of other
components absorbed on the surface. A single soot particle will
contain up to 4000 carbon spheres.

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Soot formation

Soot formation steps

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Source: Schubiger, R. A.: Untersuchungen zur Rußbildung und -oxidation in der
dieselmotorischen Verbrennung -Thermodynamische Kenngrößen,
Verbrennungsanalyseund Mehrfarbenendoskopie; Dissertation, ETH Zürich,2001
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PARTICULATES

• CxHy + z 02 ~a CO2 + bH20 + cCO + dC(s)

• Then, as turbulence and mass motion continue to mix the
components in the combustion chamber, most of these carbon
particles find sufficient oxygen to further react and are consumed
to CO2:
• C(s) + O2 ~ CO2
• Most of carbon particles originally generated within an
engine are thus consumed and never get exhausted.
• Up to about 25% of the carbon in soot comes from
lubricating oil components which vaporize and then react
during combustion.
• Generally a trade-off is need to be achieved between particulate
and NOx emissions.

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PARTICULATES

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Emissions Regulations

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Introduction

• Emission norms are the legal limits set by various governments to

control the engine emissions.
• India follows European Union emission standards named as Bharat Stage
(BS), however, it has own emission regulation which apply to two and
three wheelers.
• After many revisions, with the effect from April, 2017, the whole
country follows BS IV emission norms (equivalent to Euro IV norms).
• India has taken a big step towards emission control: in a draft
notification issued by Ministry of Road Transport and Highway on
February, 2016, it was declared that India will leapfrog to BS VI
emission norms (skipping BS V) with the effect from April, 2020.
• This will apply to all vehicles including two and three wheelers.
Presently there is EU VI norms in European countries since 2014

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Progression of emission
regulations

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How is BS-VI Different from BS-
IV?
• BS-VI requirement can be classified in vehicular and fuel property
requirements.
• The major difference between the existing BS-IV and forthcoming BS-
VI norms is the presence of sulphur in the fuel (it inhibit proper
functioning of after treatment devices and cause corrosion).
• While the BS-IV fuels contain 50 parts per million (ppm) sulphur, the
BS-VI grade fuel only has 10 ppm sulphur content.
• Also, the harmful NOx (nitrogen oxides) from diesel cars can be
brought down by nearly 70%. In the petrol cars, they can be reduced by
25%.
• However, when we talk air pollution, particulate matter like PM 2.5 and
PM 10 are the most harmful components and the BS VI will bring down
in diesel cars by a phenomenal 80%

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 Table: Emission norms for Petrol and Diesel vehicles (BS IV and VI).
(in g/km)
Type CO HC NOx HC+ PM
NOx

BS IV 1.0/0.5 0.1/- 0.08/0. -/0.3 -/0.025

25

BS VI 1.0/0.5 0.1/- 0.06/0. -/0.17 0.005/0.

06 005

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Fig: BS IV and VI emission limits for compression ignition vehicles. Note all
regulated pollutants are not shown here. An independent BS IV NO limit is
X

not defined for three-wheeled vehicles. Shown here is the combined NO

X+HC limit equal to 0.380 g/km.
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Fig: BS IV and VI emission limits for spark ignition vehicles. In addition to the
pollutants shown here, BS VI PM and PN emission limits are specified for LDVs
equipped with gasoline direct injection engines. For two- and three-wheelers, BS IV
HC+NO emission limits shown are for vehicles meeting a 2.0 g/test evaporative
X

emissions standard. Tailpipe HC+NO emission limits are more stringent for vehicles
X

certified with evaporative emissions between 2.0 and 6.0 g/test.

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Gasoline fuel properties

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Diesel fuel properties

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Engine emission control

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Control Methods
• Emission can be controlled through following ways:
Improvement in e.g. gaseous fuel
fuel over liquids,
characteristics oxygenated fuels etc.

Improvement in engine
Engine control design and operating
methods parameters e.g. ST, IT,
EGR
Emission
control
Converters (Thermal/ SI
Catalytic)
Engine

Exhaust control Particulate Filter/

methods Trap
CI
Engine
Lean Nox Trap (LNT)

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Improvement in fuel
characteristics
• One direct way to reduce the emission is through improvement in fuel
characteristics.
• A HC fuel with lower H/C ratio will produce lesser Carbon based
emissions per kg of fuel burned. (hence H2 is best!)
• E.g. If gasoline is changed to propane as engine fuel CO emission can
substantially be reduced with reduced HC and NO. Changing from
propane to methane the CO as well HC emission decreases further and
only the NO remains as a significant factor.
• Also, important fuel characteristics such as evaporation, Octane/Cetane
number, inorganic content, Sulphur content etc. can be improved to reduce
emissions. (this the task of oil refineries to match the fuel quality
requirements for specified emission standard e.g. BS VI)
• Also fuel chemical structured can be well tailored (synthetic fuel e.g.
DME, Green Diesel etc.) to give the fuel specific characteristics for lower
emissions.

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Pre-combustion methods

Improvement in engine design and operating parameters

• Modification of combustion chamber: Involves reduction of surface to

volume ratio, avoiding flame quenching zones, reduced space around
piston ring, Position of spark plug/ diesel injector, piston shape etc.
• Compression ratio determination: Lower compression ratio reduces Nox
emission but increases HC emissions due to lower maximum
temperature.
• Operating parameters include: Spark timing, Injection timing, air-fuel
ratio control etc.

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Pre-combustion methods

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)

• It is common practice nowadays, to
use EGR to reduce the formation of
NOx emissions.
• A portion of the exhaust gases is
recirculated into the combustion Development of Soot and NO emissiX

chambers. This can be achieved either limits

internally with the proper valve
timing, or externally with some kind
of piping.
• The exhaust gas acts as an inert gas in
the combustion chamber, this leads to
a reduction of the combustion
EGR System
temperature by different effects.

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Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)

Intake airflow on a turbocharged diesel 42

engine with an EGR cooler.

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Pre-combustion methods

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR)

• The energy is also used to heat up a
larger gas portion of EGR.
• As the air is diluted with exhaust gas,
the amount of oxygen is reduced.
• Exhaust gas has a higher specific heat
capacity than air, due to the CO2-
molecule’s higher degree of freedom.
• So for the same amount of combustion
energy a gas mass containing EGR
will get a lower temperature than pure Using EGR to reduce NOx emission
air. comes with increased HC and lower
• Commonly used in DIESEL ENGINE thermal efficiency. ITS
(as engine is operated lean) OPTIMIZATION IS MUST!

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Post Combustion Methods: SI
Engine Emission Control

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Converters

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Converters
Converters are post-combustion exhaust treatment devices to reduce the
emission from engines.
After-burner: is a burner where air is supplied to the exhaust gases and
mixture is burnt with the help of ignition system. Requires:
– high temperatures,
– oxygen availability,
– sufficient time for reactions.
The HC and CO which are formed in the engine combustion because of
inadequate O2 and inadequate time to burn are further brunt by providing
air in a separate box, known as after-burner.
Catalytic converter: A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control
device that reduces pollutants in exhaust gas by catalyzing a redox reaction.
Initially, two-way conversion was used. The term two-way conversion implies
oxidation of the two constituents in the exhaust, HC and CO, to form CO2
and H2O

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Three-way catalytic after
treatment
A three-way catalytic converter after treatment is the primary
technique applied to control simultaneously, nitric oxide
(NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), and unburned hydrocarbon
(HC) emission from engine.
Consists of an active catalytic material in a specially designed metal
casing, which directs the exhaust gas through the catalyst bed

Active material (noble metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium

or base metals like copper and chromium)

Two types of configurations are commonly used,

Ceramic honeycomb or matrix structure- also called monolith

 A bed of spherical ceramic pellets

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Oxidation Catalysts:

• The oxidation catalyst oxidizes CO and HC to CO2 and

H2O.

• Sufficient oxygen must be present to oxidize CO and HC.

•
• Because of their higher intrinsic (inherent) activity, noble
metals are most suitable as catalytic material.
•
• A mixture of platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) is most
commonly used.

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Effect of equivalence ratio

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Methods for decreasing warm up time are

Efficiency of TWC is also a strong function of operating

temperature.

Methods for decreasing warm up time are

1. Use of an after burner
2. Locating the converter or use of a start up converter closer to
the exhaust valve/manifold.
3.Electric heating - Additional cost plus a major drain in the
battery; required for starting the engine. Up to 1.5 kW for short
period may be required.
4. By having super-insulation
5. Thermal batteries.

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Catalyst poisoning/degradation
may be due the following causes:

1. Overheating due to engine malfunction. About 20s of ignition failure in

one cylinder at 4000 rev/min or above may provide sufficient
temperature to destroy the catalyst.

2. Presence of sulfur, phosphorus or lead in the fuel, especially lead, can

poison the catalyst.

With 0.75g Pb/liter, the efficiency drops to 40% in 10h of operation.

3. Sintering is promoted by exposure of catalyst to high operating

temperatures. Involves the migration and agglomeration of sites, thus
decreasing their (noble metals) active surface area.

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Post Combustion Methods: Diesel
Engine Emission Control

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Challenges with diesel
emissions
• Sulphur (catalytic poising), is present in larger proportions in
diesel fuel than in petrol.
• Reduction of NOx can be done only in an oxygen-free
atmosphere, so a three-way catalytic converter is impractical in
diesel engine (lean burn).
• Measures taken to reduce NOx tend to increase the quantity of
particulates and HC in the exhaust.
• Because while NOx is reduced by lowering the combustion
temperature, both soot and HC are burned off by increasing it.

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