Miami CEC Professor Catherine Almquist's research addresses VOC emission reduction in automobiles
Could a UV LED photocatalytic device effectively reduce emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles? This CEC professor worked with a team of undergraduate engineers to find out.
Miami CEC Professor Catherine Almquist's research addresses VOC emission reduction in automobiles
Professor Catherine Almquist recently made headlines in Catalysts, a journal which covers physical and theoretical chemistry, with her paper investigating a possible method of reducing volatile organic carbon (VOC) emissions from automobiles.
In her paper, titled "A Novel Application of Photocatalysis," Professor Almquist and her team of undergraduate engineering students explained how the fabrication of an ultraviolet light-emitting diode (UV LED) photocatalytic device might successfully reduce diurnal evaporative fuel vapor emissions from automobiles.
While major advances have been made to significantly reduce fuel vapor emissions from automobiles, diurnal evaporative fuel vapor emissions, which are due to the day-time warming of gasoline in parked automobiles, are still a source of VOC emissions. In an effort to mitigate these VOC emissions, Professor Almquist and her students developed a light-weight photocatalytic device and assessed its effectiveness at reducing diurnal evaporative fuel vapor emissions.
Curious if it worked? You can find out the results of Professor Almquist's novel approach by viewing the Catalysts article here.
