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This document is the statement of independent and original contribution to knowledge represented by the published works in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (by publication). The thesis reviews the impact of research work conducted between 1992 and 1998 on various concepts to improve the economy and emissions of gasoline engines in order to address environmental and legislative pressures. The research has a common theme, examining the dilution of the intake charge (with either recycled exhaust gas [EGR], excess air, or the two in combination) in both conventional port injected [MPI] and direct injection [G-DI] combustion systems. After establishing the current status of gasoline engine technology before the programme of research was started, the thesis concentrates on seven major pieces of research between 1992 and 1996. These explored a subsequently patented method of applying recycled exhaust gas to conventional port injected gasoline engines to improve their economy and emissions whilst staying compatible with three-way catalyst systems. Nine other studies are reviewed which took place between 1992 and 1999 covering other methods of improving gasoline engines, specifically direct injection and two-stroke operation. Together, all the studies provide a treatise on methods to improve the gasoline engine and the thesis allows a view from a broader perspective than was possible at the time each study was conducted. In particular, the review identifies a range of strategies that use elements of the research that can be used to improve economy and emissions. Four major categories of systems researched include: conventional stoichiometric MPI engines developed to tolerate high EGR rates [CCVS]; two-stroke G-DI engines; G-DI engines operating stoichiometrically with high EGR rates; and G-DI engines operating with high dilution from both excess air and EGR. The findings of the studies illustrate that although good fuel economy improvements and emissions can be obtained with EGR dilution of stoichiometric engines, the highest fuel economy improvements require lean deNOx aftertreatment [LNA] and these, in turn, require new aftertreatment technologies and preferably new fuel specifications. The development of suitable LNA and the cost of implementation of these approaches represents one of the main barriers to improving gasoline engine fuel economy and emissions.

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Despite being hailed as a green fuel, emissions from diesel engines including particulate matter (PM10 and PM 2.5) have been implicated in a range of adverse human health effects from lung and bladder cancers to premature mortality. In this study diesel engine exhaust emissions were collected from a light duty direct injection diesel engine on a standard test bed. Engine conditions of speed and load were altered to provide a set of total emission samples from over the engine's operating range. Diesel emission samples collected were fractionated on a silica column into aliphatic, aromatic, and polar groups of compounds, which were tested for their genotoxicity in the chromosome aberration assay in Chinese hamster ovary CHO-KI cells both with and without metabolic activation (rat liver S9 fraction). The aliphatic fractions did not exhibit cytotoxicity up to the maximum concentration assayed, and one emission sample (3000 rpm speed and 5 Nm load) assayed for effect on chromosome aberrations was not clastogenic (up to 600 pg/ml). The aromatic fractions of all engine emission samples assayed and of the fuel were not clastogenic, but did show high levels of cytotoxicity at relatively low doses, raising concern that any genotoxic effect was masked by the toxicity of certain chemicals within the fraction. Further fractionation, using 1 PLC, was therefore performed which separated the aromatics into various ring sizes. Assay of the ring fractions showed evidence of increasing clastogenicity with increasing ring size, with the -1+ -ring fractions of both the fuel and one emission sample clearly clastogenic when assayed with metabolic activation (evidence of the presence of indirect-acting genotoxic compounds within both samples). The final fractions to be assayed, the polar fractions, were clastogenic when assayed both with and without metabolic activation. All seven fractions from emission samples collected over a range of speed and load conditions caused highly significant increases in chromosome aberrations at concentrations as low as 20 μg/ml. An engine running for less than 30 minutes at 1000 rpm speed and 55 Nm load (urban driving conditions for a heavily laden vehicle) would emit 148 mg of polar group compounds for every litre of fuel consumed. Polar compounds have been shown to be a highly mutagenic fraction of air particulate samples, and as diesel emissions contribute up to 80 % of the particulate matter in urban air in some areas, diesel emissions and the polar compounds in particular are of real concern to human health. 3

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