Reducing Oxide Emissions... DIY?

[Sven7]

Hi all, I've been thinking lately about my cold starts and catalytic converter warmup times and about grid electricity (block heater) vs. good ole' dino juice.

Are there any relatively simple mods one could do to reduce a car's CO2, NOx, etc. emissions? Maybe replacing an old cat or adding a new one?

[Daox]

A heated O2 sensor will help if the ecu can take advantage of it.

[christofoo]

Maintenance is a really big deal; spark plugs, injectors, EGR, PCV, O2 sensor, don't let the cat get poisoned or plugged, don't destroy your compression...

As for mods, the only one that I've been able to come up with is a block heater. Hood insulation would probably help for shorter trips. The heated O2 sensor is also good, as Daox said, if the car is a candidate for the upgrade (and doesn't already have one).

In the end, the most cost-effective emission reduction mod might be a bicycle rack, or maybe electric moped. Stay out of the car for short errands.

EDIT: Also reel mower or electric mower vs ICE. (Anytime you see a small ICE, even a motorcycle, it is quite likely to be very disproportionate in terms of pollutions vs gas consumption. By very I mean like 10X or more.)

I wish that vacuum insulated cats were available for retrofit.

As for grid vs gasoline, I believe that anything that offsets ICE warmup is worth doing, since ICE emission is strongly biased toward warmup (first 2-5 minutes). I.e. the block heater and electric moped almost certainly make sense. For longer trips the trade may not be so clear, i.e. EVs. And remember that the grid will (probably) get cleaner while an ICE gets dirtier.

EDIT: I'm assuming you mean a coal-fired grid, like the one we have here.

[serialk11r]

DIY cooled EGR? Would help fuel economy too if your car doesn't have it already.

[christofoo]

By the way, I started researching this subject a while ago... I didn't get far enough, but here are some resources I found while I was at it:

http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels..._emissions.pdf
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...=rep1&type=pdf
[EDIT: Sven7's antivirus flagged that last file. Scroll down to find my link to a PDF-printed version.]

Need... more... time...

[Sven7]

Christofoo, good points. For sure if I were closer to town it would make a lot of sense to cycle for more than just recreation.

I've been looking around for stats on pre-warmup emissions on gas engines but can't find any numbers. (Trying to justify a block heater to someone on the local forum). So, how much less efficient are they when cold? Are they only inefficient during those five seconds of high idle at startup, or do they chug more gas until the temp is up?

Edit
The big question is this: Which emits fewer greenhouse gases: 800Wh of coal-fired electricity or the amount of extra gas your cold engine burns?

[Sven7]

Originally Posted by christofoo

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc...=rep1&type=pdf

Need... more... time...

my virus software red flagged this.

[christofoo]

Originally Posted by Sven7

my virus software red flagged this.

I never had any problem with it, but then I'm a Linux guy. Maybe something bad happened on their server.

To play it safe, I did a PDF-print conversion. Ecomodder doesn't allow such large PDF attachments, so I put it on my server. Try this:
http://cannonblast.net/files/Modelli...0Emissions.pdf
(It may take a minute, my server is behind my broadband and it isn't all that broad.)

[Sven7]

I think it was Chrome that got mad last time. No problems now; thanks! I saved it to read later

[christofoo]

Originally Posted by Sven7

Maybe replacing an old cat or adding a new one?

I think replacing the cat may be effective, because they do age, but the aging really depends on the engine history. I would want a tail-pipe emissions test before and after the exchange to verify that it worked, otherwise it's too much money to sink into something without knowing.

EDIT: BTW, if anyone does this with an older car, I would love to hear the results, positive or negative.