Methanol-fueled vehicle exhaust emission

Fig. 2. CEC methanol-fueled vehicle exhaust profile for (a) HC, hydrocarbons (b) NO and (c) CO. Solid line represents State of California standard maximum emissions. Methanol HC emissions are calculated as CH g5 and not corrected for flame-ionization detector response.

Although liquid hydrogen, LH2, can be used as a fuel source, much of the recent fuel cell research is focusing on the partial oxidation of methanol, natural gas, ethanol, or gasoline to produce the necessary hydrogen. Catalysts that aid in the partial oxidation of these fuels yields a readily available, rich source of hydrogen. Water is the primary exhaust emission produced by fuel cell powered vehicles. If a carbon-based fuel source is utilized, then a carbon-containing by-product will also be produced. 

Fig. 5 - Exhaust gas PAH emissions of the VW/Audi test fleet in the Federal Test Procedure (FTP). On the abscissa the cars are depicted with regard to the parameters engine displacement, fuel, and exhaust control device. Columns in the second horizontal direction represent measuring values for the PAH of different vehicles of the same type. Each column represents the mean value of three re-petetive measurements of the same vehicle. For each car group two or three different cars were measured in most cases. TWC = Three Way Catalyst M 15 = methanol-gasoline blend fuel (15 % methanol) M 100 = pure methanol fuel...

The impact of ILEV on methanol fuel is dramatic because M85 or any similar fuel methanol formulation is effectively excluded from consideration. The ILEV concept is a carefully constructed transportation control measure designed to encourage the swifter introduction of dedicated vehicles, particularly those fueled by Ml00 or CNG, provided such vehicles can meet the LEV exhaust emissions standards set by California and the ILEV evaporative emissions standard set by the EPA for the fuel and fuel supply system. The EPA estimates that the ILEV standards offer triple the emissions reductions of a LEV and double those of ULEV [13]. Of course, such estimates beg the question of equivalen-... 

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