Nb-doped ZrO₂-CeO₂-Y₂O₃ solid solution (Nb-ZrCeYO) is studied as a possible oxygen storage component in three way automobile exhaust catalysts. It shows enhanced oxygen storage (OS) capacity with a higher extent of reduction at temperatures within the typical operating range of three-way catalyst compared with solid solutions without Nb. However, after several days of exposure to ambient air, the OS behavior of the Nb-doped samples shows significant degradation. Degradation is slowed for samples stored in evacuated environments (i.e. vacuum sealed glass tubes). NbOₓ segregation to the surface under oxidizing conditions is hypothesized as the cause of the degradation. This hypothesis is consistent with the temperature programmed reduction data. The addition of small amounts of Pt to the aged samples restores the enhanced initial performance advantages. It is postulated that electrons supplied by metallic Pt mimic reducing conditions, which are known to re-disperse surface NbOₓ species into the bulk solid solution, leading to stable, time-independent OS performance. However, the small advantage caused by Nb addition over the current technology is insignificant for the TWC application. Therefore, we focus on other environmental applications such as CO oxidation by Nb-containing catalysts with the specific objective of enhanced CO oxidation activity by formation of Cu¹⁺ species supported on Nb₂O₅. The preparation of a Cu(1)Nb(2)Oₓ results in a solid solution crystallized in three different phases: CuO, Nb₂O₅, and CuNb₂O₆. The solid solution shows enhanced low temperature CO oxidation (<155˚C) activity compared to the reference CuO solid solution. Analysis by hydrogen-temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR) indicates there are two different Cu species in the Nb-containing solid solution: highly dispersed Cu species and bulk CuO. The existence of an interaction between Cu and Nb ions is hypothesized for the enhanced low temperature CO oxidation activity by formation of Cu⁺¹. This hypothesis is consistent with XPS data, indicating the existence of more catalytically active Cu¹⁺/⁰ and Cu²⁺ species in the Nb₂O₅ sample, where the reference bulk CuO oxide shows only the less active Cu²⁺ species. Impregnation of Cu-containing precursor salts on the Nb₂O₅ support leads to enhanced CO oxidation activity: The Cu supported Nb₂O₅ sample shows improved CO oxidation activity compared with the reference Cu supported on Al₂O₃. An isothermal aging test shows high stability of the Cu¹⁺ species on the Nb₂O₅ support at 155˚C for 20 hours in air. Studies of the optimization of the Cu supported Nb₂O₅ leads one to conclude that low surface coverage of NbOx on Al₂O₃ is the reason why these samples shows lower CO oxidation activity. The optimal amount of Cu species on the Nb₂O₅ support is 6%, where activity is similar to 1%Pt/Al₂O₃, the state of the art CO oxidation catalyst in industry, but a phase transformation of Nb₂O₅ occurring at 800˚C, leads to a loss in the enhanced CO activity. A gradual loss in surface area is observed for samples aged at higher temperatures, indicating support sintering as the main cause of the performance deterioration. Stable performance at low temperatures makes CuOₓ/Nb₂O₅ a potential candidate for stationary abatement applications, which operate at temperatures <400˚C. Advanced aging would be necessary to qualify it for specific applications. A kinetic model for CO oxidation of CuOₓ/Nb₂O₅ is also developed.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The following thesis titled, Atlanta Automotive Particulate Matter Exposure and Evaluation, presents data obtained as a part of a joint project with Emory University, Rollin's School of Public Health. The Atlanta Commuters Exposure (ACE) Study uses both real-time and time-integrated sampling techniques for ambient aerosol concentrations. The ACE study is unique in that it will correlate the ambient aerosol concentrations with the concurrent health measurements. The primary objective of this thesis is to measure the concentration, size distribution and the chemical composition of PM2.5 inside the vehicle cabin for several commuters. The vehicles followed a scripted route along roadways in the Atlanta metropolitan region during periods of peak traffic volume, while the compact air sampling package of both real-time and time-integrated instruments recorded data. Real-time measurements for Particulate Matter (PM) were made using compact Optical Particle Counters (OPC), a Condensation Particle Counter, and a MicroAethalometer. The time-integrated measurements for Elemental Carbon (EC), Organic Carbon (OC), Water Soluble Organic Carbon (WSOC), particulate elemental concentrations, and speciated organics required filter collection methods. Thus a compact air-sampling package was created to combine both sets of real-time and time-integrated instruments. The following results are presented for the first four commutes. The framework for analyzing and presenting results is developed, and will be used for future commutes.

Thesis (M. S.)--Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Guensler, Randall; Committee Member: Rodgers, Michael; Committee Member: Ross, Catherine. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The first chapter of this dissertation examines welfare impacts of a combination of subsidies to alternative fuels (AFs) and alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), and how they compare to gasoline taxes. The particular AF examined here is ethanol that is produced from agricultural products in a small open economy. The model in this paper characterizes a country or state where gasoline is the major source of fuel for automobiles, but that also produces and consumes ethanol as an AF. Gasoline combustion is polluting and its use equals the total amount of emissions produced. Thus, a gasoline tax here is the same as an emissions tax and is the most direct environmental instrument. However, increasing gasoline taxes for pollution purposes is often politically not feasible. Thus, this paper studies how closely subsidies to alternative fuels (AFs) and alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) emulate abatement behavior from a unit gasoline tax in a simple three sector general equilibrium model, and in the presence of pre-existing labor taxes. The model can also be used to track the effects of each policy on outputs, exports, and fuel use. The analytical results of the model are then calibrated to data from the largest ethanol producing state in the U.S., namely Illinois. The paper finds that subsidies can achieve up to 64 percent of the welfare gains from the gasoline tax, if the uncompensated wage elasticity is low enough or the elasticities of substitution between the transportation goods is high enough. The second chapter estimates behavior of households who jointly make discrete decisions about vehicle ownership and continuous decisions about miles driven. The paper uses seven years of data from 1995-2001 for the 35 states and union territories of India. The estimated parameters will be used to calculate elasticities of each different type of vehicle for percentage changes in petrol price per unit distance travelled and in vehicle taxes. The paper also computes income and price elasticities for petrol consumption. Two types of vehicles predominant in India are cars and two-wheelers such as motorcycles, mopeds, and scooters. The latter type of vehicle is more fuel efficient than the former. However, patterns of vehicle ownership across the country reflect a growing number of cars relative to motorcycles. This paper investigates the impact alternative policies such as taxes on petrol or on cars have on efficient methods of vehicle emission abatement in India. In particular, the chapter estimates the effect of each such policy on vehicle choice and driving behavior, and how they in turn affect emissions. The main results are summarized as follows: First, continuous choice own-price elasticities are higher for 4w relative to 2w, given age, and for older vehicles relative to newer ones, within each category. Second, discrete choice own-price elasticities with respect to capital cost are higher for 2w relative to 4w. Moreover, older vehicles of each type are more sensitive to higher vehicle prices relative to their newer counterparts. Third, income elasticities for discrete vehicle choices are all positive and greater than unity. Thus, higher income encourages purchase of newer vehicles of each type. Moreover, usage of vehicles rises with income, conditional on the particular vehicle choice. Finally, the paper conducts simulations that alter the price per kilometer by adding either an additional gas tax, a distance tax or an emissions tax. Results show that a distance tax reduces vehicle kilometers traveled the most, followed by an emissions tax and lastly by the gas tax. However, local emissions are reduced the most by an emissions tax, followed by a distance tax and then by a gasoline tax. Even though it would be ideal to compare the results obtained in this paper to results generated using a micro-level data set, the estimates presented here are indicative of whether a distance tax or a gasoline tax is more effective for emissions abatement in India. The third chapter of this dissertation evaluates how information asymmetry in private automobile markets affects programs to accelerate vehicle retirement, also known as scrappage programs. We use a dynamic framework where agents have heterogenous preference for car quality. Cars can either be new, or used. While all new cars have the same quality, used cars can be of high- or low-quality. The quality of a car is perfectly correlated with emissions. The goal of a scrappage program is to induce car owners to voluntarily scrap low-quality used cars. One key result is that in the presence of adverse selection a subsidy that maintains an active resale market unambiguously makes all types of consumers better off. However, if this option of implementing the subsidy does not exist, then the only other way to induce effective scrappage in our framework is to shut down the used car market. Welfare implications suggest that it might be better not to do anything rather than have a scrappage program such as the latter. / text

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Climate change has become a discussion topic of exponentially increasing urgency and importance amoung world leaders of all disciplines. These changes are brought about by the emission of so-called Greenhouse gases from various human activities. The primary cause of CO2 emissions is the burning of the Earth’s supply of nonrenewable natural fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. The world first agreed on the prevention of “dangerous” climatic changes at the Earth Summit in 1992. The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 was the first step toward protection of the atmosphere and prescribes restrictions on emission pollutants. Since then the vehicle gas emissions are being controlled by means of different gas emissions norms, like the European Union Norm in Europe. The automotive manufacturers and suppliers are collectively working on reducing overall vehicle emissions. They are focusing on several different emission limiting possibilities, for example improved engine design, special fuel development and exhaust gas treatment systems. The exhaust gas treatment process requires continuous controlling and management of the exhaust gas emissions while driving a vehicle. Certain factors such as high emission temperatures have a negative influence on the life span of these systems. Their functionality and durability is also known to be reduced by the presence of chemical poisoning species like sulphur, phosphorus, zinc and calcium. The chemical poisoning species are produced during combustion of fuel and engine oil. They are therefore contained in the exhaust emissions and can poison the catalyst when passing over it. Phosphorous poisoning is particularly problematic and should be reduced considerably. This study involves the investigation of the phosphorous poisoning process and aims to provide clarity regarding the influences of different fuel and oil compositions on the severity of the process. Engine oil and biodiesel are two major sources of phosphorous poisoning. The phosphorus contained in biodiesel fuel is a natural component and can be minimized during the refining procedure. In contrast to others studies, the biodiesel fuel used during this project was SME (Soya Methyl Ester) with a 20% biodiesel content. This choice of fuel was made because of the increasingly important role that this type of biodiesel is playing in the European market and the future tendency to increase the percentage of biodiesel in the mixture with standard diesel fuel. The phosphorus contained in engine oil is a necessary additive to retain the antioxidant and anti-wear properties of the oil. This study examined the poisoning influences from the most commonly used phosphorus containing oil additive, Zinc Dithiophosphates (ZDDP), as well as a Zn-free, phosphorus containing anti-wear oil additive. This formulation provides information about the phosphorus poisoning process as caused by the engine oil in the absence of Zn in the oil additives. The results show how the phosphorus content in biodiesel fuel affects the functionality of the exhaust gas treatment systems and the importance of reducing the permitted content of phosphorus contained in the fuel. Reducing the phosphorus content in the fuel will conserve the functionality of the exhaust gas treatment systems during their operational life and thereby protect the environmental from emission pollutants. It also provides insight into the differences in the poisoning processes when the phosphorus deposited on the catalyst comes from biodiesel fuel and when it comes from the engine oil. Finally the results also illustrate the influence of different phosphorous forms contained in engine oil additives on the catalyst poisoning process. This information could be used for the development of new oil additive formulations.

America’s energy crunch— something new for a country that has been used to great affluence. America’s smog— an eye stinging, lung burning situation which the Environmental Protection Agency has "promised" to rectify. These are two outstanding problems that face the engineer and scientist of today. The end of the era of cheap gasoline has brought the beginnings of a quiet revolution to Detroit: an improvement in the efficiency, economy and emission level of the American automobile. Word has penetrated to the automotive engineers that the emissions level, fuel economy and automobile safety are the prime design considerations for the automobile of the future.

The purpose of this work was to demonstrate the effectiveness of neutron activation analysis in studying a complex environmental problem. The area chosen for study was the exhaust emitted by automobiles and its dispersion into soil and selected plants near highways. The elements chosen for this study were the major traceable components of gasoline and automobile exhaust. Variations in the concentrations of these trace elements in soil, grass and wash off the grass at various distances from two highways were investigated. Of the elements found in gasoline and in automobile exhaust, bromine most clearly indicated where some of the atmospheric components were going and, therefore, would be the most suitable element for neutron activation studies of atmospheric and turbulence modeling and possibly for following biological effects of automobile traffic. / Master of Science