Effect of input energy on the cold start characteristics of an EHC with heat storing material on a motorcycle engine

It was revealed that for the shorter heat storing material, better conversion efficiency was attained when heating at the inlet. Heating at the mid-section of the catalyst with the same length of heat storing material resulted in less energy stored, quicker heat dissipation and more frequent re-heating required. In contrast, with a longer heat storing material, the temperature rise was more gradual and more heat was absorbed, resulting in a more stable overall temperature development. It was further showed that under the same input energy, the shorter heat storing material provided a higher CO conversion efficiency than the longer material. Further, a threshold total input energy for achieving a CO conversion efficiency above 65% was found to be 100 kJ.