Technologies for CO ₂ Mitigation on Light-Duty Vehicles — An Overview

In the last years, world's general concern about climate changes and their effects on human life has strongly increased. Some countries, such as European Union members and the USA, are improving their legislations in order to limit vehicular CO₂ emissions. To comply with these limits, new vehicle and fuel technologies are being developed in many places. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to present a comprehensive overview of some of these technologies for light-duty vehicles based on international published references and some experiences of Petrobras Research Center (CENPES). Also, this work addresses to some regulatory initiatives, such as new CO₂ emission legislations and fuel economy labeling programs.