Almost two years ago, the Japanese shocked the US auto industry by demonstrating that the rotary engine, invented in Germany and perfected in Japan, could meet the strict 1975 automotive emission standards, which Detroit had claimed to be unattainable. Since then, the Environmental Protection Agency has granted a year's delay of enforcement, but has bludgeoned the auto industry into using catalytic afterburners, which are probably the least promising alternative: They clean up the pollution after it has been created, use expensive and scarce metals, and further reduce gas milage.

The Wankel engine, on the contrary, does not create as much pollution in the first place, because its surface to volume ratio of' the compression space rapidly dissipates heat and prevents the high temperatures in which nitrogen oxides are produced.

Now comes a second shock for the auto industry, and again from Japan. If the combustible gas air mixture is too rich, it pollutes; if'it is too lean, it won't ignite. So the new Honda engine has two combustion chambers: a small auxiliary chamber in which a rich mixture is ignited by a conventional spark plug, and the main chamber with a lean mixture, which is ignited by the explosion flashing through a connecting channel from the auxiliary chamber. This stratified charge system, claims Honda, meets the exceedingly strict requirements of the 1975 (now 1976) standards.

Ford and Chrysler have signed licence agreements with Honda (GM and AM are backing the Wankel engine). Detroit says that the system has not yet been proven for high powered engines, and a lead time of several years is necessary for retooling.

Maybe so, but Honda has once again demonstrated that pollution is cured by better technology, not by Naderite neurotics.

Vol. 1, No. 2 Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Volume 1 Issue/No.: Vol. 1, No. 2 Date: October 01, 1973 04:59 PM Title: Bottleneck or "bottom of the barrel"? Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive All rights reserved.