PremAir® Catalyst System - OBD Concepts

Traditional approaches to pollution control have been to develop benign, non-polluting processes or to abate emissions at the tailpipe or stack before release to the atmosphere. A new technology called PremAir^® Catalyst Systems¹ takes a different approach and directly reduces ambient, ground level ozone.

For mobile applications, the new system involves coating a heat exchange device in a vehicle, such as the radiator or air conditioning condenser. The catalyst converts ozone to oxygen as ozone-containing ambient air passes over the coated surface of the radiator. The technology is relatively simple and provides a positive benefit to the environment while being totally passive to the end user application.

Volvo Car Corporation was the first automobile manufacturer to voluntarily introduce the technology on their S80 luxury sedan. Nissan Motor Corporation is also using the technology on their new Sentra CA (Clean Air) certified PZEV vehicle for California. In December 1998 the California Air Resources Board (CARB) agreed to provide emissions credits for adopting the PremAir catalyst system under the LEV program. This provides automobile manufacturers an alternative “tool” for reducing fleet-wide non-methane organic gas (NMOG) vehicle emissions and complying with the LEV requirements. In order to obtain these credits, CARB will require On-Board Diagnostic (OBD) of the catalyst performance. The progress with development of various OBD concepts will be discussed in this presentation.