The European Union (EU) has introduced since the early 1990s a series of progressively more stringent emission regulations to control air pollution from the transport sector, commonly known as Euro standards. Following this path, more recently, with the European Green Deal, the European Commission has indicated the intention to review the current air pollutant emissions standards. This study investigates the emission performance of an advanced demonstrator vehicle developed to meet the increasingly more stringent air pollution limits required. Emissions of currently regulated and unregulated components including NH3, N2O, and SPN10 (solid particle number), were studied in a very wide range of real-world operative conditions. The performance of two new generation portable instruments for the onboard measurement of N2O and NH3 were also evaluated in comparison with reference laboratory equipment. Similarly, the measurement accuracy of onboard NOx sensors was also compared to laboratory reference. The vehicle presented low emissions of NOx and NH3 and relatively low emissions of N2O, also compared to data currently available in the literature, in a broad range of operative conditions, which however resulted in a large variability in emissions.
Recently, we have succeeded in developing stable and long-term operation of an extended-gate field effect transistor-type glucose sensor using a silk-fibroin film for the immobilization membrane of glucose oxidase. In this paper, we report the fabrication process and characterization of the fibroin film. High-purity silk fibroin powder was used as the solute material in water. The advantage of this material is high solubility in water, non-toxicity to human body, and capability of stable immobilization of enzyme molecules. The fibroin film was formed on a glass substrate using a spin coating method followed by an insolubilation treatment in 80 wt% ethanol aqueous solution. It was revealed that the bond strength between the film and the substrate was dramatically improved by applying a silane coupling treatment to the substrate. The obtained film showed -sheet structure and contained dense nanopores on the surface.
The development and utilization of a series of after-treatment devices in modern vehicles has led to an increase in emissions of NH3 and/or N2O with respect to the past. N2O is a long-lived greenhouse gas and an ozone-depleting substance, while NH3 is a precursor of secondary aerosols in the atmosphere. Certain regions, e.g., the EU and the USA, have introduced limits to the emissions of NH3 or N2O for vehicles tested in the laboratory. However, due to the lack of on-board systems that allow for the measurement of these compounds when the regulations were developed, these vehicles’ real-world emissions have not been regulated. This work evaluates on-board systems that could allow measuring real-world emissions of NH3 and N2O from heavy-duty vehicles. In particular, emissions of NH3 or N2O from a Euro VI Step D urban/interurban bus fueled with Compressed Natural Gas were measured using the HORIBA’s OBS-ONE-XL, which is based on a specifically developed technique called Infrared Laser Absorption Modulation, and uses a Quantum Cascade Laser as a light source. They were also measured using the PEMS-LAB, which is a more conventional FTIR-based system. Emissions were measured under real-world driving conditions on the road and in a climatic test cell at different ambient temperatures. For most of the conditions tested, the on-board systems correlated well with a laboratory-grade FTIR used as reference. In addition, a good correlation with R2 > 0.9 was found for the N2O concentrations measured by OBS-ONE-XL and PEMS-LAB during on-road testing.
The present study is a fundamental approach to develop the measuring technology for minute fluctuating pressures on the three-dimensional blade surfaces of the fan which rotates with an arbitrary rotation-axis direction. In this situation, we are required to correct the centrifugal-force effect, the gravitational-force effect and the other leading-error effects for accurate measurements of the minute pressures. The working fluid is air. A pressure transducer rotating with an arbitrary attitude is closely sealed by a twofold shroud system. The rotational motion with an arbitrary attitude is produced by fixing the pressure transducer to the cantilever which is connected to a motor-driven disc of 500mm in diameter and 5mm in thickness. As a result, we have quantitatively determined main governing effects upon the non-effective component of the pressure-transducer signal.
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