A Demonstration of Emissions' Behaviour of Various Handheld Engines Including Investigations on Particulate Matter

To get an overview of the emission situation in the field of small non-road mobile machinery powered by various types of SI engines, the Association for Emissions Control by Catalyst (AECC), together with the Institute for Internal Combustion Engines and Thermodynamics (IVT) of Graz University of Technology, conducted a customized test program. The main goal for this campaign was to derive information regarding the emissions of regulated gaseous components (following European Directive 97/68/EC) as well as particulate matter. With regard to the big variety of different engines that are available on the European and North-American market, the most representative ones had to be chosen. This resulted in a pool of test devices to cover different engine working principles (2-Stroke and 4-Stroke), technological standards (low-cost and professional tools) and different emissions control strategies (advanced combustion and exhaust gas aftertreatment). The test results illustrate a wide range of emissions' behaviour depending on engine technologies and testing conditions and can serve as a database of in-field emissions of small handheld applications. Particulate matter emissions were also measured in terms of mass and number and their chemical composition was evaluated via Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis of the PM deposit.