REDUCTION OF AUTOMOBILE CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS

The automotive industry is one of the major manufacture sectors in developed nations. It accounts for almost 5% of total manufacture value of industrialized countries such as USA, Japan, France and England. The automobiles are also an essential end user of gasoline and naphtha. This leads to environmental impact with major contribution to output of greenhouse gases. In 2000 transportation contributes around 20 percent of world carbon dioxide emissions. International environmental standards and specifications organizations wary about the long term effect of carbon dioxide emissions. Adding to the environmental impact, the expected shortages in the supply of petroleum products productions in the near future are leading factors for producing more fuel efficient vehicles. The adoption of producing body cars light in weights to minimize the fuel consumption becomes major priority in automobile industries in recent years. Body cars produced from fibber-glass reinforced thermoplastics is investigated in this paper from carbon dioxide emissions point of view. The objective is to reach major reductions in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted. This was achieved due to the considerable weight reduction of the automobile body reaching to 30% saving in fuel consumption. Polypropylene reinforced with fibber-glass is prepared in our laboratory. The stress strain time correlation is modelled in order to produce the blend appropriate for the production of body cars with acceptable specifications. A single screw extruder is used to prepare the required samples. Mathematical models are used to evaluate stress strain correlations of the reinforced samples. Additions of 30% fibber-glass to the blend lead to produce cars with the required stress specifications.