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The catalytic converter, an invention that has sharply reduced smog from cars, has now become a significant and growing cause of global warming, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Hailed as a miracle by Detroit automakers even today, catalytic converters have been reducing smog for 20 years. The converters break down compounds of nitrogen and oxygen from car exhaust that can combine with hydrocarbons, also from cars, and be cooked by sunlight into smog. But researchers have suspected for years that the converters sometimes rearrange the nitrogen-oxygen compounds to form nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas. And nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas, more than 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, the most common of the gases, that is warming the atmosphere, according to experts. ... Ned Sullivan, the head of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, said the converter problem requires a "comprehensive" response. "This specific issue fits into a broader context that our regulatory system has tended to deal with pollutants on an individual, rather than a comprehensive, basis," he said. http://www.sepp.org/Archive/controv/controversies/catalytic.html

UMaine Engineering Students Gear Up for International Snowmobile Challenge. ... McNaughton and four other students are installing a sensor system that will analyze exhaust gases and send a signal to a microcontroller. Using instructions written by the students, the microcontroller will adjust the signals sent to the engine’s stock engine control unit to make better use of the catalytic converter that was adapted to the engine by last year’s UMaine team. This combination will keep exhaust gases as clean as possible. “The catalytic converter reduced hydrocarbon emissions from about 130 parts per million to about 20,” said McNaughton. “With the new engine electronics, we think we have gotten that down to about 12. This compares to 1600 parts per million for the 2-stroke Ski-Doo we worked on three years ago, and that was with some significant tuning improvements!” http://www.umaine.edu/News/article.asp?id_no=407

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