Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder
Some non-issue !
The water mist will make it into acid - I wouldn't call that eliminated.
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It is as soon as it hits cement or any number of other substances including dust, also remember the QTY of acid you will actually make, we aren't talking gallons here, think grams. A decent lifetime exhaust system will handle a couple grams of nitric.
If you don't like nitric which turns into fertalizer when it hits soil, you could have a driveway saltwater mist into the exhaust post cat, then you end up with again more fertalizer.
Or of coarse there is always the diesel solution, urea!
Quote:
Originally Posted by euromodder
NOx is just about the worst thing to come out of your exhaust.
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I disagree, the mercury vapors that come out of some poorly constructed overseas oil refineries is much worse.
Anyway...
NOx breaks down more quickly on its own than any of the other types of pollutants including CO2 which lasts longest. NOx is a synergistic compound, it can have climate benefits in the right conditions and it can also cause negatives in large cities when combined with other forms of pollution. On its own absent the exotics and aeromatics it doesn't form anything too frightening, acid in the right places is a non-issue. For example my folks dumped acid on their garden for years and had some nice blueberries and rhubarb.
Its all a matter of scale and location. I won't say its the best thing since sliced bread but many things attributed to NOx in of itself are not paticularly accurate or are exaggerated. NOx in of itself does not cause smog, other things that don't belong in the air also have to be present for that reaction to happen.
Remember too our wonderfull graph if he burns 50% less gas and makes even 25% more NOx, is he really any worse than the guy driving the pickup next to him?
At stioch your normal average modern car still makes plenty of NOx, the difference between lean and normal is splitting hairs on a 50mpg+ vehicle.
Its only the very latest that show promise with GDI and variable valves to start reducing the stoich value of NOx. All others behave pretty much per the curve with a handfull of notable exceptions, including the insight I.
To really reduce NOx we really need to reduce the number of gas guzzlers, since all cars make NOx regardless of lean or not.