Honda Develops Next-Generation Green Engines

By industry standards, Honda is considered to be one of the greenest carmakers. With green production methods, a track record for producing efficient cars, and cutting edge R&D, the brand continues to focus its efforts on producing new environmentally friendly vehicles. Heres a glimpse of whats to come.

For some time now, Honda has announced that it will be bringing a 50 State Legal diesel engine to North America - a goal thats yet to be met by any rival auto manufacturer. Earlier this week, Honda released a bit more information about how theyre going to do it with their new Clean Diesel motor. Based upon the 2.2-liter I-CTDi motor that debuted back in 2003, Honda has fitted a new kind of catalytic converter that uses a built-in ammonia system in order to meet the ultra-strict EPA Tier-II Bin 5 (AKA The Diesel Killer) regulation that managed to squelch Mercedes-Benzs Bluetec. Honda says its new catalytic converter not only effectively converts harmful NOx emissions to levels equivalent to those of conventional passenger diesel cars, allowing it to easily pass the stringent standards, but its compact design can be fitted to any existing diesel engine with ease. This engine is expected to be on the road within three years time.

Honda has also jumped on the Flexible Fuel train, adopting the ways of ethanol-based fuels. Though a recent spike in attention to ethanol has been taking place in North America, pushed on by the Big 3, Honda has chosen to adopt this carbon-neutral approach to fuel in order to improve its fairing in countries within South America, where E85 and E100 fuels are widespread. Honda will be fitting ethanol-capable components to its Fit with the 1.4-liter engine, as well as to its Civic with the 1.8-liter engine. In order to guarantee perfect operation, both cars feature an advanced fuel system which is capable of operating on any ethanol-based fuel ranging from 20 to 100-percent. Performance is on par with the equivalent gasoline models.

While Flex-Fuel and Diesel are growing in popularity, Honda predicts that gasoline will be the main fuel source for the foreseeable future, and has invested in improving its production gasoline engines by developing a new Advanced VTEC system. Advanced VTEC differs from the standard VTEC systems by adding a continuously varying version of its Variable Timing Control (VTC) system. The addition of continuous variability allows improved control over the operation valves, depending on the driving position. Under low loads, such as cruising or in town, the system does not lift the valves as high, and closes them early during the combustion cycle in order to reduce power and energy loss. The result is a 13-percent improvement in fuel consumption when fitted to Hondas 2.4-liter I-VTEC motor (Accord, CR-V, etc.) as compared to the standard production version. This engine qualifies for the EPA LEV2-ULEV emissions, producing 75-percent fewer harmful emissions than the 2005 standards. Honda expects to have a production version of this engine on the road in less than three years.