HORIBA announces on-board exhaust gas measuring system

19 July 2002

A new onboard emission measuring system has been announced by Japan’s HORIBA, Ltd. According to HORIBA, it is the world’s first on-board type exhaust gas measuring system that can be employed on a vehicle during its regular operation on the road. Accurate measurements of emissions from a vehicle running on an ordinary road had previously been impossible to gather.

The system continuously measures concentrations of CO, CO₂, HC, and NO_x, and determines the A/F ratio. Based on the measurements recorded by the exhaust gas flow meter, it computes the exhaust gas mass flow and the fuel economy in relation to mileage. It also enables comprehensive measurement of operating conditions of the vehicle, including location information via GPS and data on running conditions from a variety of sensors. An important feature of the system is its ability to make on-vehicle, real-time measurements of the exhaust gas mass, which were conventionally difficult to achieve without full-scale experimental facilities.

Application areas of the new system include both gasoline and diesel vehicles. It can be used for such tasks as research into exhaust gas emissions with reference to traffic and environmental factors, research and development of automobiles and catalysts, or research into age variation of exhaust emissions from vehicles in actual service. The system, which requires only about 1 m² of space, can be installed in most light- and heavy-duty vehicles.

The system utilizes a heated NDIR analyzer, H-NDIR, for the measurement of HC as well as CO and CO₂. Other components include a ZrO₂ method A/F and NO_x sensor, and a flow rate measurement unit including a Pitot static tube. A technical paper on the on-board system authored by Hiroshi Nakamura will be presented during the JSAE 2002 Conference in Yokohoma, Japan, on July 23 - 25.

Source: HORIBA