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Low Emission Four-Stroke Outboard Marine Engine Utilizing Catalyst Technology
This page updated January 20, 2009
Chair’s Air Pollution Seminar |
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Wednesday, March 17,
2010
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Low Emission Four-Stroke
Outboard Marine Engine
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Jeff Broman
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A conceptual project
aimed at understanding the fundamental design considerations concerning
the implementation of catalyst systems on outboard marine engines was
carried out by Mercury Marine, with the support of the California Air
Resources Board’s Innovative Clean Air Technologies (ICAT)
program. In order to keep a reasonable project scope, only
electronic fuel injected four-stroke outboards were
considered. While they represent a significant portion of the
total number of outboard engines sold in the United States, carbureted
four-strokes and direct injected two-strokes pose their own sets of
design constraints and were considered to be outside the scope of this
study. The integration of catalyst systems on outboards is much more challenging than on other marine propulsion alternatives. Sterndrive and inboard engines are horizontal crankshaft engine derivatives of an automotive counterpart. Outboards on the other hand utilize a vertical crankshaft, open loop cooling, and consist almost entirely of components that were specifically designed for a marine outboard engine application. This presentation will show how Mercury Marine designed a catalyst system for two families of outboard engines utilizing state of the art processes and design analysis tools. Prototypes of one of the designs were constructed and tested. Results of that testing will be shown that highlight the potential to meet four-star emissions levels and the challenges that will face commercializing this technology.
Jeff Broman, is a development engineer in the
Product Development and Engineering Group at Mercury Marine.
Mr. Broman’s work at Mercury Marine has focused on engine
thermodynamics development, including combustion, gas exchange,
emissions, and engine calibration on conventional two-stroke, direct
injected 2-stroke, and naturally-aspirated and pressure-charged
4-stroke outboard engines. Mr. Broman has a B.S. in
Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.
For information
on this Series please contact: For
a complete listing of the ARB Chairman's Series and the related
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