A Novel System for the Detection and Analysis of Vehicles Exhaust Pollution

L. Eduardo Cordova-Lopez1, A. I. Al-Shamma’a1, A. Shaw1, J. D. Cullen1, A. Al-Yasiri2

1
General Engineering Research Institute (GERI)
Radio Frequency and Microwave Research Group
Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 3AF
L.E.Cordova-Lopez@2005.ljmu.ac.uk
2
School of Computing, Science and Engineering
Newton Building, University of Salford, Manchester M5 4WT

Abstract- During the past few decades, increased
concern about the impact of human activities on our
environment has gathered momentum. An example of
this is the Kyoto Agreement, in which the great
majority of nations came into accord on controls for
emission of Carbon Dioxide and 5 other “green house”
effect producing gases. A significant measure of this
concern is related to the amounts of pollution
generated by transportation systems and the by-
products of the fossil fuels used for this purpose.
In Europe, there has been legislative control on
pollution since the early 70’s, when Euro 1 standard
came in force with a limit for Carbon Monoxide of 2.72
and Particulate Matter of 0.14 g/km for diesel vehicles.
The latest incarnation of the standard to be
implemented in 2008 under the name of Euro 5 has
seen the same limits reduced to 0.5 and 0.005 g/km
respectively. It can be seen that these controls have
become increasingly more stringent and new and more
sophisticated methods are being implemented to
achieve them.
In this document, a variety of detection and
treatment methods are considered in detail and
proposals for a possible implementation of an urban-
wide system for the detection and mapping of vehicle
derived pollutants is presented. The implementation of
a virtual instrument using LabVIEW software is also
considered. In this interface, graphical displays of the
different trends are recorded and an HTML generated
document is provided for later examination.
This work also explores the possibility of incorporating
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) tools to assist
with the analysis.
Keywords – Exhaust, pollution, sensors, GIS
technology, and although some may argue that reserves of
oil will not last long, at the present time we depend on
them.
Due to the ever increasingly stringent regulations on
the amounts of pollutants allowed to come out of vehicle’s
exhausts, novel technologies and systems are being
developed and researched to comply with the legislation in
place and upcoming standards.
We propose a system in which an array of sensors will
analyse the exhaust flue and determine individual amounts
of pollutants. The information collated will be presented to
the driver via a dashboard panel as well as being
transmitted to an urban area network of receivers in order
to create “pollution maps” at a city level.
Controller Area Networks (CAN) have been present in
vehicles a few years now and is the automotive industry
base standard upon which application layer
implementation are built (e.g.: CANopen, DeviceNet,
J1939). Their purpose is to transport the electronic signals
from the different systems to a central processing unit. It is
our plan to make use of this network in the implementation
of the proposed system.
In addition, we make considerable use of GIS. The GIS
is a system for creating and managing spatial data and
associated attributes. It is a “smart map” which allows us
to create interactive queries.
The purpose of this paper is two-fold. firstly, an
investigation in some of the existing and novel ways to
monitor and treat emission gases coming out of a vehicle’s
exhaust. Secondly, the implementation of a GIS interface
which monitors in real time the pollution levels in an
urban environment as well as some parameters like what
type, make and age of vehicle produces the most
pollutants, areas most affected in the city to mention just
some of the possibilities.

II. ROAD TRANSPORT AND POLLUTANTS

I. INTRODUCTION
A significant amount of the pollution that enters the
atmosphere is generated by road transport. The burning of
fossil fuel to generate motion and power is not a clean
In research carried out as part of the ICE’s (Institute of
Chartered Engineers) State of the Nation 2005
infrastructure report published on 18/10/2005, it was
reported that between the years 1982 and 2003, the
number of cars on UK roads rose from 15.5 to 26.2
millions; a rise of 70% or 10.7 million vehicles[1].
In Beijing alone, it was reported that between January
and April of 2004 an average of 1,375 cars were added
each day to the roads [2].
As the number of vehicles on the roads increases all
over the world, so too does the level of exhaust emissions
accumulating in the atmosphere. This is because, despite
advances in emission control and the cars being more
environmentally friendly, the vast quantities of them
negate their increased efficiency.
A car should be able to burn hydrocarbon fuels with air
in an engine producing carbon dioxide (CO2), water (H2O)
and releasing the nitrogen (N2) that came in with the air. In
practice though, this is not the case. The fossil fuels that
are used to run our vehicles comprised 100’s of differently
structured hydrocarbons. They burn in different ways and
at different rates. The exhaust contains some that were
burned only partially, some that reacted with others and
some that reacted with the nitrogen.
Some of the exhaust components have no adverse
effects to humans or the environment like nitrogen, oxygen
and water. However, Carbon dioxide, although not a toxic
gas, is a contributor to the Green House effect. Carbon
monoxide is highly poisonous and in interaction with
haemoglobin in the blood prevents the assimilation of
oxygen. Oxides of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide are a by-
product of the combustion process. Both of them in
interaction with other elements produce acid rain. They
also interact with heat and sunlight to produce ground
level ozone, also known as smog. Particulate matter (PM)
is partly burned fuel and is most commonly associated
with diesel engines. In recent years they have been linked
as a possible cause to respiratory problems and its role in
producing lung cancer is a matter of debate worldwide.
It is clear that the exhaust components are a
contributing factor in environmental deterioration; poor air
quality leads to health problems, not to mention the
financial side.
In view to preserve and improve air quality, all over the
world, governments have started to implement tighter
controls on the maximum amount of emission allowed per
vehicle.
Within the European Union, since the early 70’s there
have been emission requirements. These have come into
force as regulation since 1993 in what is known as the
Euro 1 Standard [3].
Summarising the standard, it can be said that in order to
preserve air quality, vehicles must meet certain standards
for exhaust emissions before they can be approved for sale
within the EU.
Successive tightening of the allowances of the
emissions has been implemented with Euro 2 in 1996,
Euro 3 in 2000 and Euro 4 implemented in 2005. The
latest paper, is at the time of writing in the process of
consultation, and is expected to come into effect as Euro 5
between 2008 and 2010 [4].
III. POLLUTION CONTROL TODAY
The different technologies in use today to measure and
control motor vehicle pollution are very limited. The most
widely used system in place is the Lambda Sensor [5].
This is in essence an oxygen sensor and works by
measuring the oxygen coming out of the exhaust. As
mentioned above, fossil fuel is burned in the presence of
air and the stoichiometric ratio for petrol is 14.7:1. If there
is less air than this perfect ratio there will be left unburned
fuel after the combustion process. If there was too much
air, then there is excess of oxygen and nitrogen oxide
pollutants are produced. The computer therefore adjusts
the air/fuel ratio accordingly in order to produce a better
combustion. A noticeable disadvantage of this system is
that it needs to heat up to around 300° C before it starts to
function.
An alternative method to measure an exhaust’s content
is an electro-chemical gas analyzer. It works by sampling
the exhaust emissions and passing it through filters to
detect the different pollutants. An advantage of this type of
sensor is the variety of different gases that can be detected,
for example CO, CO2, O2, NO, NO2, SO2, HC. A
disadvantage is the fact that they cannot be used
continuously. They are primarily designed for off-line
testing as they require regular calibration and filter
changes.
To implement a system to measure pollutants in turbine
engine exhausts consisting of an array of single gas
electro-chemical sensors would require a large number of
individual analysers making this a very expensive system
with an extremely high initial cost. Again, this is a
cumbersome system and above all the cost of
implementation makes it prohibitive for the purpose at
hand. In addition, they are high maintenance with
calibration required on daily and even hourly basis.
There are other methods to control pollution being
investigated. Although they are still in the research stage,
some of these techniques are offering promising results.
As examples we can mention Laser Induced
Incandescence [6] to control particulate matter and
Fluorescence Decay[7] to monitor the exhaust temperature.
In essence, we can conclude that at present, there is no
effective on board (built in) gas analyser fitted in any type
of vehicle. The main problem to achieve this is without
doubt the present capabilities of components and the
overall size of analysers.
There is an alternative which in principle should give us
solution to most of the problems discussed previously.
This is infrared spectroscopy.
IV. INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY
The infrared area of the electromagnetic spectrum
ranges between 0.78 and 1000µm and it is divided into
three sections: near, mid and far infrared [8].
Infrared spectroscopy works by absorption of the
infrared section of the electromagnetic spectrum and like
other spectral techniques it can be used to elucidate the
elementary composition of a given sample.
 To understand how infrared spectroscopy can be used
to measure the contents of an exhaust, it is necessary to be
aware of some basic concepts of chemical and physics
theory:
- A molecule is the smallest particle of a pure
substance that retains the composition and
chemical properties and is composed by two or
more atoms.
- Infrared radiation affects the vibrations in the
electronic bonds of a molecule, unlike ultraviolet
radiation which induce transitions of electrons.
These vibrations fall into two main categories of
stretching and bending.
- In a molecule, the atoms are joined by shared
pairs of electrons in a chemical bond. It may
consist of atoms of the same element as in
Oxygen (O2), or different elements, as in water
(H2O).
- The positions of atoms in a molecule are not
joined by rigid links; two atoms are held together
because both nuclei are attracted to the same pair
of electrons.
- The frequency of light has certain energy. It can
be safely concluded that if a particular frequency
is absorbed as it passes through a compound, this
energy must have been transferred to the
compound.
Typically, when a sample is subjected to infrared
radiation, it absorbs energy at specific frequencies. The
reason why only specific frequencies are absorbed is
because IR radiation can only be absorbed if the radiation
has exactly the right energy to induce a vibration within
the bond. For example, the carbonyl group C=O absorbs
light between 1670-1780 cm-1. The excited vibrational
state does not persist though. After a random period of
time it will revert back to its natural energy state, emitting
a photon in the process. This photon is not emitted in the
same direction as the original photon, leaving a gap in the
spectrum. The resulting gaps will remain there despite the
reemission of the photons since they will not travel along
the original path to the observer.
If we radiate a sample with all the frequencies of the
spectrum, those absorbed frequencies will appear as
troughs in the resulting diagram, which is displayed as a
percentage of the transmitted radiation plotted against the
frequency. The percentage of absorbed light at a particular
wavelength depends on the number of molecules present
and the absorption strength of that molecule at that
wavelength.
V. FINGERPRINT REGION
There is also an area of the IR spectrum in the region of
1500 and 500 cm-1 (mid infrared) where each individual
element absorbs a very specific amount of energy at
precise wavelengths, which corresponds to the difference
between atomic energy levels. For this reason, this area of
the mid-infrared region is known as the “fingerprint
region”.
The fingerprint region can be used for the identification
of individual gases by comparing the absorbance
wavelengths against standard reference tables.
The infrared spectrum of an element’s molecule is
dependent on its atomic structure; it is (therefore) constant,
although there can be small deviations dependent on
temperature and pressure. An advantage of this method is
the lack of interaction required between the target gas and
the detecting device; so, calibration should be done only
once for each gas. Another advantage is the fact that the
size of the detectors is becoming increasingly small.
VI. FIBRE OPTICS
IR spectroscopy can be used to analyse the exhaust
gases, it becomes necessary to study how to get the light
signal to the area where the measurement effected will
reflect accurately the levels of individual pollutants
produced by the explosion process. Due to its particular
properties and resilience in harsh environments, the most
appropriate medium to drive the light signal to and from
the highly corrosive area of the exhaust is fibre optics.
Fibre Optics is a branch of optics that deals with the
transmission of light through very thin transparent fibres.
These fibres are generally made up of pure glass and have
core diameters between 5 microns up to 100 microns.
Transmission of light in fibre optic is achieved by an
effect known as total internal reflection [9]. When light
goes from a medium with one refractive index into another
with a lower index, the light beam is partially refracted and
partially reflected. However, if the light beam hits the
surface with a lesser refractive index at a shallower angle,
there will be a point at which the light will be totally
refracted in a way that it travels along the axis of the fibre.
This is called the critical angle; beyond this angle there
will be no refraction of the beam. Its entire spectrum will
be reflected.
UV Laser Light
Phase Mask
Fig. 1. Imprint of Bragg Grating on a fibre
Having achieved a total refraction of the beam light
through the strand of fibre, it becomes necessary to filter
out some of the wavelengths in order to “tune” the fibre
optic sensor to the specific wavelength of the signature of
the gas to be measured. This can be achieved by means of
fabricating within the fibre itself a special filter that
reflects all other wavelengths and only allows the desired
ones to pass.
The grating is based on the principle of Bragg
reflection, as shown in Fig. 1, when light propagates
through periodically alternating lengths of higher and VIII. PROTOTYPING THE APPLICATION
lower refracting index, it will be partially reflected at each
stage between these regions. However, if the space Once the appropriate measurements have been
between these regions is such that all the partial reflections computed, an interface with the driver is simulated using
add up in phase, the total reflection can be up to a 100%. National Instrument’s LabVIEW software. The benefit of
To “fabricate” a filter within the fibre itself, the using this tool is the possibility of being able to quickly
photosensitive properties of the Germanium within the modify the display and functionality of the finished
core are irradiated with a UV laser with a wavelength of product without significant expense, as shown in Fig. 3
around 240nm. This, in effect permanently changes the
With this application interface in the dashboard, the
refractive index of the fibre.
driver can monitor the measured exhaust elements which
are displayed in a meter and virtual LED’s. If any of the
VII. CONTROLLER AREA NETWORK
measurands was to go into dangerous or unacceptable
levels, the corresponding LED will change to red. In
Having analysed the exhaust contents and measured the
addition, the user can choose which one of the components
different components, such information will be displayed
of the exhaust flue to display in the panel’s meter. The
in the vehicle’s dashboard. Originally electric devices in
built-in indicator in each button should be lit only when
cars were connected using point-to-point wiring. With
the item is active in the meter.
time, more and more electronics needed to be integrated
and so many wires were required to do this.
Electric Windows

Seat and Mirror

Control

Air
Conditioner

Power Steering

Emission
Control
Engine Control
Suspension
Fig. 3. A prototype of the end user panel.
Transmission
CAN
ABS IX. URBAN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK
Fig. 2. A typical CAN network in a car
The authors envisage Urban Area Networks in place in
the near future. These networks would be dedicated to the
In 1985, the German company Bosch developed an in-
collection of data, including exhaust emission levels, and
vehicle network under the name CAN which in practice
vehicle details such as the manufacturer, model and year
reduced wiring costs, weight and complexity. CAN, as
of registration. This data would be transmitted from each
shown in Fig. 2, is a serial bus system in which all nodes
vehicle to strategically placed roadside receivers, collated
are able to transmit data and several of them can request
and analysed by means of a Geographical Information
the bus simultaneously. There is also no addresses or
System. GIS is a computer technology that incorporates
subscriptors or stations as in other types of networks.
geographic information when analysing data, as indicated
Instead the messages are broadcasted with a priority
by Fig. 4.
encoded within the message’s identifier to all nodes. These
nodes will decide according to the identifier received
whether the message is to be processed and the priority in
the bus access. This high integrity serial bus system was
quickly adopted by the automotive industry and became an
international standard known as ISO 11898 in 1993. Since
then, its robustness and reliability has propagated and the
standard has been increasingly adopted for industrial field
bus systems. Other users include medical engineering,
robots, lifts and transportation systems.
The existing CAN Network in a vehicle can therefore
be used to update the on-board diagnostic panel which will
keep the driver informed at all times of the pollution levels
of the vehicle. This data could also be used and include
the make of the vehicle, the year, the type of fuel and any
other non-specific data to help to collate information on
the origins of environmental pollution. Fig. 4. GIS as a layered information tool
 The data from the roadside receivers can then be
overlaid onto a corresponding area to create pollution
maps. This would identify the individual pollutants at a
local level, which types of vehicles are the main polluters
and where the worst affected areas are, as shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Possible implementation of system.
Having data such as this should prove valuable for
systems designed to analyse air quality, congestion levels
and other pertinent factors when considering pollution.
Such systems could then be used directly to take action
where necessary, such as limiting road usage and applying
dynamic congestion charges.
X. CONCLUSION
The relevant standards coming into effect in Europe
will be increasingly tightened and in order to ensure
compliance, new technologies created. This does not mean
that it will be the end of transport generated pollution.
As a result of this and the ever increasing awareness of
effects on the environment due to human activity, it would
be beneficial to implement an on-board system to make the
driver aware of the pollutants his vehicle is emitting as
well as his compliance with the standards in place.
With the implementation of optical sensing technology
via the CAN network, this could be integrated into a
GIS system to make a very neat package that should in
practice:
- Detect pollution in the exhaust of a vehicle.
- Inform the driver of existing pollutant levels
and action appropriate alarms which could
trigger pre-emptive action.
- Create pollution maps on an urban scale
containing details such as the types of cars,
year of fabrication and fuel used.
Finally, it is envisaged that the applications of the
methods covered in this paper will not be restricted to cars
and other such means of transportation; they could be used
in any type of process which utilises fossil fuels to
generate energy.
REFERENCES
[1] Institute of Chartered Engineers: State of the Nation 2005
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[2] Thomas L. Friedman, as quoted in: “The World is Flat”, Page
407. ISBN: 0374292884
[3] EEC Official Journal L 242, 30/08/1991 pp.1-106
[4] http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/
LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2005:0683:FIN:EN:PDF
[5] http://www.ngkntk.co.uk/technicaltips/lambdasensors.asp
[6] John H. Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio
http://www.nasatech.com/Briefs/Jan05/LEW17479-1.html
[7] H. Dong, W. Zhao, K. Grattan, A. Al-Shamma’, et al.
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 15, 2005 pp. 315-322
[8] http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/sci/chem/tutorials/
molspec/irspec1.htm
[9] http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/
phyopt/totint.html