Automotive fuels and internal combustion engines: a chemical perspective

Abstract

Commercial transportation fuels are complex mixtures containing hundreds or thousands of chemical components, whose composition has evolved considerably during the past 100 years. In conjunction with concurrent engine advancements, automotive fuel composition has been fine-tuned to balance efficiency and power demands while minimizing emissions. Pollutant emissions from internal combustion engines (ICE), which arise from non-ideal combustion, have been dramatically reduced in the past four decades. Emissions depend both on the engine operating parameters (e.g. engine temperature, speed, load, A/F ratio, and spark timing) and the fuel. These emissions result from complex processes involving interactions between the fuel and engine parameters. Vehicle emissions are comprised of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO, nitrogen oxides (NO(x)), and particulate matter (PM). VOCs and NO(x) form photochemical smog in urban atmospheres, and CO and PM may have adverse health impacts. Engine hardware and operating conditions, after-treatment catalysts, and fuel composition all affect the amount and composition of emissions leaving the vehicle tailpipe. While engine and after-treatment effects are generally larger than fuel effects, engine and after-treatment hardware can require specific fuel properties. Consequently, the best prospects for achieving the highest efficiency and lowest emissions lie with optimizing the entire fuel-engine-after-treatment system. This review provides a chemical perspective on the production, combustion, and environmental aspects of automotive fuels. We hope this review will be of interest to workers in the fields of chemical kinetics, fluid dynamics of reacting flows, atmospheric chemistry, automotive catalysts, fuel science, and governmental regulations.

Nitrogen in Runoff from Residential Roads in a Coastal Area

“…A similar result has been reported for residential driveways (Gilbert and Clausen 2006) and parking lots (Hope et al 2004), which are also significant sources of N in runoff. Because automobile catalytic converters operate less effectively during the first 1-2 min after ignition (Wallington et al 2006), vehicles may deposit more N on residential roads as they depart from residences compared to when they are later cruising on larger roads that are generally used by traffic originating from longer distances. Quantities of N emitted from exhaust vary, depending on several factors related to the type of engine, catalytic converter, fuel, and operating conditions (Cape et al 2004;Durbin et al 2002).…”

A New Chemosensing Ensemble for Colorimetric Detection of Oxalate in Water

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6] Colorimetric sensing of a specific anion is a particularly attractive research topic because of its simplicity and naked eyes detectable nature, which allows visual detection of anions without resort to expensive spectroscopic instrumentation. 1,2,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Dicarboxylates are among the most attractive targets for anion recognition and sensing due to their critical roles in numerous metabolic processes such as the generation of highenergy phosphate bonds and the biosynthesis of important intermediates.…”

Analysis of the road traffic-induced pollution in two areas of Sibiu, Romania

“…The noxious gaseous that were targeted for this analysis were hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). The presence of hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide in vehicle exhaust is due to incomplete combustion processes, whereas NOx results when atomic oxygen formed through the thermal dissociation of molecular oxygen reacts with nitrogen molecules in the air [6].…”