Alternative and renewable fuels show tremendous promise for addressing concerns of energy security, energy supply, and CO\u2082 emissions. However, the new fuels have the potential to produce non-regulated exhaust components that may be as detrimental or worse, than currently regulated emissions components. For the 2009 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge (CSC), a commercially available Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer was used to sample raw exhaust from eight student teams' snowmobiles for comparative analysis with a conventional emissions bench. The levels of CO\u2082, CO, NO , O\u2082, and THC were compared for the five operating modes, which included both gasoline- and diesel-powered snowmobiles. The fuel was either an ethanol blend for spark-ignition engines or a biodiesel for compression-ignition engines. Final emissions result scores varied by less than 2% between the conventional emissions bench and the FTIR. In addition, due to the ability of the FTIR to measure non-regulated exhaust species, significantly increased levels of formaldehyde and ammonia were detected for some of the engine and exhaust configurations that displayed significant reductions in regulated emissions.
Alternative and renewable fuels show tremendous promise for addressing concerns of energy security, energy supply, and CO\u2082 emissions. However, the new fuels have the potential to produce non-regulated exhaust components that may be as detrimental or worse, than currently regulated emissions components. For the 2009 SAE Clean Snowmobile Challenge (CSC), a commercially available Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer was used to sample raw exhaust from eight student teams' snowmobiles for comparative analysis with a conventional emissions bench. The levels of CO\u2082, CO, NO , O\u2082, and THC were compared for the five operating modes, which included both gasoline- and diesel-powered snowmobiles. The fuel was either an ethanol blend for spark-ignition engines or a biodiesel for compression-ignition engines. Final emissions result scores varied by less than 2% between the conventional emissions bench and the FTIR. In addition, due to the ability of the FTIR to measure non-regulated exhaust species, significantly increased levels of formaldehyde and ammonia were detected for some of the engine and exhaust configurations that displayed significant reductions in regulated emissions.
