Exhaust emission from vehicles under real road traffic conditions - a new chance for PTI

The paper presents regulations and methods of testing emissions of exhaust toxic components from vehicles, particularly with respect to research methods under real road traffic conditions. In Europe, legal regulations determine emission values of the exhaust toxic components: carbon monoxide CO, unburned hydrocarbons HC and hydrocarbons released by evaporation (VOC - Volatile Organic Compound), nitrogen oxides NOx, and also PM emitted with the exhaust gasses. Emission of the harmful substances from the vehicles is tested on the chassis dynamometer, and the combustion engines them, on engine test bench. Due to a high cost of the test equipment and complexity of the tests, it is possible to use one measuring system, for both types of stands. Basic EU Directives and UN-ECE Regulations contain rules on conducting the aforementioned tests together with the regulations for the measuring equipment. In the beginning of 2005 in Europe the introduction of a new set of regulations began be introduced, concerning emissions from the M1 and N1 category vehicles. They are called Euro IV (currently obligatory) and Euro V (introduced in 2008). New regulations introduced not only more stringent requirements for the vehicles they refer to, but also for the research laboratories as far as the equipment level and research methods are concerned. Compliance with these requirements is being verified during type approval of vehicles, conformity of production (COP), and in-service conformity.