Pollution:
- Air pollution in the EU is estimated to contribute to 406,000 deaths annually and cause over 100 million lost days of work, costing the EU economy €330-940 billion per year.
- Small particles in the air pose the greatest risk to health, penetrating deep into the lungs and being absorbed into the blood, causing a range of illnesses and even death. The World Health Organisation recently confirmed that air pollution causes cancer. Over 90% of the EU population is estimated to be exposed to levels of particulate pollution that represents a risk to health, and about a third of all EU citizens are exposed to levels of particulate pollution above EU permitted levels.
- While the motor car has become an indispensable part of modern life, there is increasing concern about its environmental impact, particularly the negative effects of automotive exhaust emissions on air quality and human health. It has long been acknowledged that pollutants emitted from gasoline-driven vehicles contribute to a decline in air quality. Carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons are all known to be toxic to humans or damaging to the environment.
- For decades, the preferred method for mixing fuel and air and depositing it into the engine's combustion chamber was the carburetor. Press the accelerator pedal to full throttle, and the carburetor allows more air and fuel into the engine.
- Since the late 1980's, carburetors have been almost completely replaced by fuel injection, a far more sophisticated and effective system of mixing fuel and air. Fuel injectors spray gasoline into the air intake manifold, where fuel and air mix together into a fine mist. That mix is brought into the combustion chamber by valves on each cylinder during the intake process. The engine's on-board computer controls the fuel injection process.
- It has become the primary fuel delivery system used in automotive engines, having replaced carburetors during the 1980's and 1990's. A variety of injection systems have existed since the earliest usage of the internal combustion engine.
- The primary difference between carburetors and fuel injection is that fuel injection atomizes the fuel by forcibly pumping it through a small nozzle under high pressure, while a carburetor relies on suction created by intake air accelerated through a Venturi tube to draw the fuel into the air stream.
- Fuel injection generally increases engine fuel efficiency. With the improved cylinder-to-cylinder fuel distribution of multi-point fuel injection, less fuel is needed for the same power output (when cylinder-to-cylinder distribution varies significantly, some cylinders receive excess fuel as a side effect of ensuring that all cylinders receive sufficient fuel).
- Exhaust emissions are cleaner because the more precise and accurate fuel metering reduces the concentration of toxic combustion by-products leaving the engine, and because exhaust cleanup devices such as the catalytic converter can be optimized to operate more efficiently since the exhaust is of consistent and predictable composition.
- The particle filter is an important component in terms of minimising pollution from cars. This keeps particles until their combustion which occurs nearly every 500Km. At that moment, the filter’s temperature is about 450ºC during a few minutes; particles are burned, but not the substitute. This allows a decrease of 95% in particulate emission.