Emission Performance of California and Federal Aftermarket TWC Converters

Abstract

Original equipment (OE) catalytic converters are designed to last the life of properly tuned and maintained vehicles. Many high mileage vehicles require a replacement converter because the original catalyst was damaged, destroyed, or removed, and the cost of a new OE converter on an older vehicle is difficult to justify. In the U.S., a federal aftermarket converter program has been in place since 1986 (California in 1988) and it has resulted in the replacement of over 50 million converters. Both Federal and California programs have required aftermarket converters to meet minimum performance and durability standards.

A remote sensing emissions monitoring programme reduces emissions of gasoline and LPG vehicles

“…The 2013 to 2014 reductions for EFHC, EFCO and EFNO were 44.0%, 42.4% and 32.7% respectively for the LPG vehicle fleet. This improvement in reduced emissions is in line with the effect of other catalytic converter replacement programmes(Brezny and Kubsh, 2013).The EF results for LPG vehicles can be further investigated to determine the influence of the two dominant vehicle classes, i.e. taxis and PLBs in the results data.…”