Device to Control Tailpipe Emissions can Reduce Greenhouse Effect

A US company named 4.0 Analytics has developed a wireless emissions compliance and reporting technology that can help motorists check their emissions in real time through their computers or smartphone and take corrective measures. This can cause a significant decrease in tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases like carbondioxide and improve vehicle performance. Motorists will also benefit from lower repair bills, better mileage and a longer lifespan for their vehicles.

4.0 Analytics developed the technology in collaboration with several partners

Like Rutgers University-Newark, NJIT, Essex County College and Seton Hall Law. Several organizations will begin testing the technology this month in their fleets and  public safety and maintenance vehicles by installing a small interface device that can be fitted under the dashboard of their cars and trucks. The device can be used to gather raw data from the vehicle’s engine and emission systems and conveys it in real-time through secure cellular networks to cloud servers where a proprietary software algorithm is used to process it into actionable information. Fleet managers and other users can get access to the results from their own accounts on 4.0’s web-based platforms.

According to Mark Scotland, the company’s CEO, the device will help bring transparency to the heart of the vehicle by allowing users to measure important parameters related to the engine and emissions system. He said that this will help them to preserve the life of an expensive asset by extracting raw data and converting it into actionable information for end-users. Thus, fleet operators and motorists can use the device to establish baseline behavior, set goals for improvement and measure results against goals.

Two graduate students from NJIT, Sandeep Raveeshbabu, who earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 2015, and Krutarth Patel, who is currently pursuing a master’s degree in computer science, helped to develop the technology.

According to Gloria Cowart, the company’s co-founder and operations director, using the technology will make it possible to cut carbon emissions by 200,000 pounds for every 100 vehicles annually, and proactive maintenance will help drivers to save over 10,000 gallons of petrol. It would also help owners to measure performance more accurately by providing car owners with information not available from garage-based analytics as most diagnostic systems reveal issues with the vehicle when it is in the garage and not while it is on the road.