Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 29, 1995 TAG: 9506300003
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH, MICH. LENGTH: Medium
The announcement Monday was a big boost for inventor Engelhard Corp. The company hopes to sell the system as a gasoline-powered alternative to more costly electric and natural gas-powered cars automakers are developing to meet new pollution standards.
If tests over the next nine months prove successful, the system could be available to reduce smog in some cities as early as 1998, a Ford executive said.
Iselin, N.J.-based Engelhard is a major manufacturer of catalytic converters. Unlike previous improvements in automotive pollution control, Engelhard's PremAir system cleans the outside air rather than the car's exhaust.
A special platinum-based coating on the radiator and air conditioner condenser converts ozone, the main ingredient of smog, into oxygen, and carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide as outside air passes through.
The system would complement catalytic converters, which remove most of the pollutants from engine exhaust. With further developments in emissions technology, the process could lead to low-emission cars and trucks that are net cleaners of the air, Ford officials said.
``Automobiles have been viewed as pollution generators. We expect they'll be viewed as pollution eaters as time goes on,'' said Louis R. Ross, Ford's chief technical officer.
Testing will focus on whether the coated radiators can hold up in the face of salt, dirt, insects, high altitudes and the elements faced in everyday driving. Ford also will determine how much the system will cost to mass produce.
It is expected to cost ``significantly under $1,000 per vehicle,'' said Orin R. Smith, Engelhard chairman and chief executive. The system can be used without major vehicle redesign.
Ross said Ford officials are excited about the possibility that the system could help satisfy tough anti-pollution regulations later this decade.
To meet standards of the federal Clean Air Act, California, New York and Massachusetts plan to cut smog by requiring the introduction of non-polluting cars by 1998. The only ``zero-emission'' cars close to mass production are costly models powered by batteries.
Ford and other automakers worry that consumers won't buy those expensive and limited-distance cars.
During a news conference at Ford's radiator plant in Plymouth,
Executives at Ford's radiator plant in Plymouth demonstrated how the system works. With the radiator fan on a new Mercury Mystique turned on, ozone from a machine was fed into the radiator while a device measured what came out the other side.
With 270 parts per million of ozone entering the radiator - representing a very smoggy day in Los Angeles - only 10 parts per million exited.
Tests of the system show that on average it destroys about 90 percent of the ozone and carbon monoxide passing through it, said Terry Poles, Engelhard's director of business development.
by CNB