Sustainable Mobility

Technical and environmental challenges for the automotive sector

Week 1 Session 4 Pollution and pollutants part 2 :

Pollutant formation
Maria Thirouard

IFPEN / IFP School 2014

Here is our simplified description of combustion.

There is the fuel that goes into the engine. The mixture burns during combustion. The chemical
reaction produces the gases that we have already mentioned: CO2, Nitrogen and water, in the case
of a complete combustion. In addition to this, CO, HC, NOx and particulates emissions are
produced in the case of incomplete combustion. There are many other products that can be
produced during incomplete combustion, but we will only discuss CO, HC, NOx and particulates
emissions because those are the regulated pollutants.

Why is combustion not complete?

Generally, combustion is not complete for two main reasons:
- First, because fuel and air are not mixed in the right proportions.
- Second, because the temperature is not high enough for the reaction to take place.
If we have at least one of these factors, we can explain how the incomplete products of combustion
that weve mentioned before are produced.
Lets see the main pollutants we have been talking about to understand how these factors affect
the pollutant formation.

Pollutant formation: CO
CO is produced when there is not enough air or not a high enough temperature.
The lack of air is easy to understand: we need two molecules of oxygen to form CO2. If there are
not enough oxygen molecules, the reaction is stopped at CO.
The reaction might also be stopped if the temperature is not high enough for the reaction to take
place.

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IFPEN / IFP School 2014

Pollutant formation: HC
Unburned hydrocarbon emissions represent the unburned fuel that goes directly to the exhaust
gases and the fuel that has not burned completely.
For most fuels, pyrolysis occurs before combustion. In incomplete combustion, products of
pyrolysis remain unburned.
The term HC represents a large variety of fuel compounds. To name a few we can say, Methane,
Ethane, Ethylene, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH), and so on. HC emissions, as CO
emissions, are produced when there is not enough oxygen.

Pollutant formation: Soot

Particulate emissions or soot emissions are produced at high temperature conditions when there is
a lack of air in the mixture.
Because the formation mechanism is very complex, it is important to identify the compounds that
are precursors of soot formation.
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) are the main soot precursors. So fuels with higher content
of PAH facilitate soot formation.

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IFPEN / IFP School 2014

However, not all the soot formed is found at the exhaust. Most of the soot formed inside the
engine is also oxidized inside the engine. This oxidation mechanism is very important to reduce final
soot emissions. So the final result is a balance between how much is formed and how much is
oxidized.

Pollutant formation: NOx

NOx emissions are produced by the oxidation of the nitrogen in the air at high temperature. It is
easy then to understand that, for NOx emissions to be produced, we need to have an excess of air
during combustion.

Pollutant formation: SO2

SO2 is mainly produced from the oxidation of sulfur contents in the fuel.
Sulfur is responsible for the pollution of water and soil in what has been called acid rains.
Sulfur has been removed from fuel in Europe since 2009, but it still remains in some countries.
The positive consequence of the absence of sulfur in the fuels is a dramatic reduction of SO2
emissions, as can be seen in the graph.

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IFPEN / IFP School 2014

How can we control pollutant emissions? HC, CO, NOx and Soot
Regarding HC, CO, NOx and Soot, there are basically two trends. We can try to optimize combustion
or we can try to treat the emissions to transform them.
Optimizing combustion means that we figure out the way to have complete combustion. This is
what we call the reduction of the pollutants at the source.
Treating the emissions means that we add some devices to trap the pollutants or produce a
chemical reaction that transforms them. This is what we call the after-treatment devices.

How can we control pollutant emissions? The case of CO2

Weve seen that CO2, even though its a greenhouse gas, its not a regulated pollutant. There are
measures to reduce it but its not the same case as for the other pollutants emissions. CO2
emissions are not that simple to control. CO2 is naturally present in the atmosphere and it plays an
important role in the living species.
First because it plays a major role in photosynthesis and second, because it prevents the
temperature of the Earth from being too low. So basically, CO2 is very important.

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IFPEN / IFP School 2014

However, when talking about the reduction of CO2 emissions we need to look at the global picture,
or lets say the global pollution. As I have said before, the measures to control local or global
pollution are different.
Controlling local pollution has an immediate impact on peoples health.
However, we will see the benefits of reducing the global pollution in 30 to 50 years, maybe even
more.
Lets see this with an example. Lets say that we want to reduce the pollution of a city and we want
to take some measures regarding the transport sector.
One possible solution is to forbid the use of any engine-based transportation and to force people to
use only bicycles or to walk. A very radical solution but this is just an example.
So, what happens to pollution?
Here, we reduce both local and global pollution since no exhaust emissions of any kind are
produced.
A more moderate solution would be that, in addition to bicycles, we allow the use of electric cars
because electric cars are cleaner than thermal cars. But is this true?
It is true that electric cars dont produce all the exhaust gases we have been talking about since the
beginning of this course.
So local pollution will be reduced but if we look at the global pollution in our second solution, what
is going to happen? The answer is not that simple. A global analysis must be performed, what we
call, a Well to Wheel analysis.
We need to look at how the electricity is produced. As you know, there are many ways to produce
electricity.
If electricity is produced from a thermal electrical plant that burns coal, resulting CO2 emissions
might be higher than the CO2 emissions that would have been produced by cars using internal
combustion engines.
Then, in this second solution, even though local pollution is reduced, global pollution is increased.
This is just an example to show you how complex this problem is.
It is also a very controversial issue so there is not an easy answer to solve the problem.

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IFPEN / IFP School 2014