LA Weekly

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One of the worries that lurks in the mind of the biodiesel user is the nitrogen curse: Studies have shown that biodiesel burns clean in almost every way, but can produce as much as 12 percent more nitrogen oxides than petroleum diesel, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District (where they love a natural gas a little too much, I think, but whatever). NOx, of course, is the primary component in the production of ground-level ozone. Sunlight hits it, and bam! -- kids at play in Inland Empire schoolyards grab for their inhalers.

While is why I'm so happy this morning to learn that Honda Motor Co., according to an article in Designfax, has developed a next-generation diesel engine equipped with a NOx catalytic converter to reduce NOx down to the strictest EPA standards. As the story explains:

This catalytic converter features the world's first innovative system using the reductive reaction of ammonia generated within the catalytic converter to "detoxify" nitrogen oxide (NOx) by turning it into harmless nitrogen (N2), according to the company.

There's a whole lot more technical detail in the story if you want it: Explanations of how catalytic coverters in gasoline engines work best at "stochiometric air-fuel ratios" and the chemical processes by which this catalytic converter absorbs NOx. If you don't need that kind of detail, all you need is this: "Honda has reduced the amount of NOx and soot normally found in engine exhaust, while increasing power output." And "The compact system is easy to install in passenger vehicles."

Honda has previously marketed of its clean-burning diesels exclusively in other countries, most of them European countries. But it plans to make the new diesel cars available in the U.S. within the next three years.

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