VARIOUS AIR POLLUTANTS AND ITS

HARMFUL EFFECTS IN TERMS OF ‘SI’ AND

‘CI’ ENGINE:

POLLUTANTS:

Pollutants are produced by the incomplete burning or combustion of air-fuel mixture in the
combustion chamber .

POLLUTANTS EMITTED BY PETROL ENGINE (SI ENGINE):

• Carbon monoxide

• Oxides of nitrogen

• Hydrocarbons

• Lead

CARBON MONOXIDE:

 Carbon monoxide is produced because of insufficient supply of air for combustion.

 The percentage of carbon monoxide increases during engine idling and decreases with speed.

 It is not possible to completely eliminate carbon monoxide.

 Carbon monoxide has more affinity for combining with the hemoglobin of the blood

 This reduces the ability of hemoglobin to carry oxygen to the body tissue

 It affects the central nervous system

  It is also responsible for heart attack and a high mortality rate.

OXIDES OF NITROGEN:

 Oxides of nitrogen occurs mainly in the form of ‘NO’ and ‘Nitrogen dioxide’ . They are

generally formed at high temperatures

 NOx increases with increasing manifold pressure engine load and compression ratio.

 They affect blood purification system.

 It aggrevates diseases like bronchitis and asthma

HYDROCARBONS:

 Hydrocarbon is produced due to incomplete combustion.

 The incomplete combustion is due to low charge temperature ,too rich or too lean mixture or poor

condition of the ignition system.

 They are primarily irritating

 They affect vision and produces smog.

LEAD:

 Lead is produced from the combustion of gasoline.

 Major portion of lead that enters the engine is emitted from the exhaust which forms very small

particles of oxides and oxyhalides in the atmosphere.

 Lead is toxic air pollutants and poisonous

  They affect liver and kidney and abnormality in pregnancy.

 It causes mental effects to childrens.

POLLUTANTS EMITTED BY THE DIESEL ENGINE (CI ENGINE):

• Smoke

• Particulate

• Sulphur dioxide

• Photochemical smog

• Carbon monoxide

• Oxides of nitrogen

• Hydrocarbons

SMOKE:

 Smoke is produced because of insufficient mixing of fuel and air.

 Smoke contains ‘carbon monoxide’ and ‘carbon dioxide’.

 It is a visible carbonparicle.

 Blue white smoke is produced when more carbon particles are mixed with exhaust.

 It causes irritation in eyes and lungs.

  It causes other respiratory diseases.

PARTICULATE:

 Particulate are minute separate particles found in the air. They may be solid or liquid particles.

 The dust soot and fly ash are included in it.

 It causes diseases like bronchitis and lung cancer.

 It also causes allergic diseases.

SULPHUR DIOXIDE:

 Sulphur dioxide is produced if the fuel has sulphur .

 In the presence of water vapour it forms sulphurous and sulphuric acid.

 It may damage plants.

 It causes irritation to eye and throat.

 It corrodes materials.

PHOTOCHEMICAL SMOG:

 Hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen in the exhausts reacts with atmospheric air in the presence of

sunlight and produces photochemical smog.

 It damage the plants life.

 It reduces the visibility.

 It affects the respiratory system of human beings.

CARBON MONOXIDE:

 Carbon monoxide is produced because of insufficient supply of air for combustion.

 The percentage of carbon monoxide increases during engine idling and decreases with speed.

 Carbon monoxide has more affinity for combining with the hemoglobin of the blood.

OXIDES OF NITROGEN:

 Oxides of nitrogen occurs mainly in the form of ‘NO’ and ‘Nitrogen dioxide’ and are

generally formed at high temperatures.

 NOx increases with increasing manifold pressure engine load and compression ratio.

 It aggrevates diseases like bronchitis and asthma.

HYDROCARBONS:

 Hydrocarbons is produced due to incomplete combustion.

 The incomplete combustion is due to low charge temperature , too rich or too lean mixture or

poor condition of the ignition system.

 They affect vision and produces smog.

CAUSES OF POLLUTION:

DIESEL ENGINE EMISSION:

 Diesel smoke is the main pollutant in case of diesel engines. The diesel smoke are of

two types:

• White smoke

• Black smoke

WHITE SMOKE:

 White smoke arises due to too low operating temperature.

 It also arises due to too long delay between the start of fuel injection and begining of combustion

 White smoke appears during starting and warming up.

 Blue white smoke is caused by liquid droplets of lubricating oil or fuel oil while starting from

cold.

BLACK SMOKE:

 The black smoke appears after the engine has fully warmed up and accelerated or pulling under

load.

 The black smoke is a suspending of soot particles in the exhaust gas.

 The black smoke arises due to some following reasons.

INJECTION SYSTEMS:

Following increases the smoke levels

 Unsuitable droplet size

 Inadequate or excess penetration

  Improper dispersion atomization

LOAD:

 The smoke level rises from no load to full load

 In higher load range there is an abrupt rise in smoke level due to less available oxygen

FUEL:

 The white smoke produced in an engine depends upon the quality of fuel

 More volatile fuels give less smoke than heavier fuels of similar cetane number.

SPEED AND MAINTANANCE:

 At low and at high speeds the smoke produced is worse

 Smoke levels greatly depends upon the condition of the engine. Good maintenance is a must for

lower smoke levels.

SOURCES OF POLLUTION:

There are three main sources of air pollution due to petrol engine. They are:

 Evapourative emission

 Exhaust emission

 Crank case blow by

EVAPOURATIVE EMISSION:

 Evapourative emission takes place from the fuel supply system

  The two main sources of evapourative emission are

• The fuel tank

• The carburetor

 About 30% of total hydrocarbon emission is occurring from the fuel tank and carburetor

The fuel tank:

 The main reasons for tank emissions are fuel volatility and the ambient temperature.

 The tank design and location can also influence the emission as location affects the temperature.

The carburetor:

 Carburetor loses are during hot condition when the vehicle is in operation

 The fuel volatility also affects the carburetor emission

EXHAUST EMISSION:

The various pollutants in the exhaust emission are:

• Hydrocarbon

• Carbon monoxide

• Oxides of nitrogen

Hydrocarbon:

Hydrocarbon is released in the exhaust emission due to following reasons

(a) Low charge temperature

 (b) Too rich or too lean mixtures

(c) Poor condition of the ignition system

(d) Non uniform fuel in the mixture supplied to the engine

(e) Compression ratio

Carbon monoxide:

 CO occurs due to insufficient amount of air in the air fuel mixture or insufficient time for

complete combustion

 The emission of CO increases during acceleration and idling condition

 The emission of CO cannot be completely eliminated

Oxides of nitrogen:

 Oxides of nitrogen is emitted due to high temperature and availability of oxygen

 Oxides of nitrogen is emitted due to spark advance and air fuel ratio

 Oxides of nitrogen emission increases with increase in manifold pressure, engine load and

compression ratio.

CRANK CASE BLOW BY:

 Crank case blow by means of the leakage past the piston and piston rings from the cylinder to the

crank case

 The piston and its rings are designed to form a gas light seal between the sliding piston sprit and

the cylinder walls

  But in real case it is not possible some gases escape into the crank case

POLLUTION CONTROL:

The pollution may be controlled by the following two ways:

 The formation of pollutants is prevented as far as possible

 The pollutants are destroyed after they are formed

POLLUTION CONTROL IN SI ENGINES:

CONTROL OF HYDROCARBON:

Formation of hydrogen may be reduced by the following points

 Reducing the compression ratio

 Changing the design of combustion chamber

 Changing the design of piston

 By supplying lean mixture

 By maintenance of piston and piston rings

Destroying the hydrocarbon may be done by the following points

 By supplying air to the inlet manifold

 By using after burner

 By using catalytic converter

CONTROL OF CARBON MONOXIDE:

 Methods of reducing carbon monoxide are:

 By using closed loop control

 By supplying lean mixture

 Providing suitable overlap of valves

Methods destroying carbon monoxide are:

 By using reactor in the exhaust manifold

 By using after burner

 By using catalytic converter

CONTROL OF OXIDES OF NITROGEN:

Methods of reducing oxides of nitrogen are:

 By supplying the exhaust again to the inlet manifold

 By spraying water in the inlet manifold to add moisture to the mixture

 By using catalytic converter in the exhaust the oxides of nitrogen can be destroyed

POLLUTION CONTROL IN CI ENGINE:

CONTROL OF SMOKE AND SMOG:

Methods of reducing smoke and smog are:

 Running the engine with a limited load

 Maintaining the engine wall

  By adding barium salt in the fuel

 By using catalytic muffler

ODOUR CONTROL:

Methods to control odour are:

 By using catalytic muffler

 By changing the injection system in diesel engine