Traffic and Environment / The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry Bd.3T (PDF)

The automobile is one of the inventions which has made a decisive contribution to human mobility and it has become an inseparable part of modern human society. It is through this widespread use that negative impacts on the environment have become clearly visible. Therefore, since the late sixties and early seventies, automotive development has been accompanied by an ever increasing number of severe legal standards e.g. about the reduction of exhaust gas pollutants, noise emissions, hazardous substances and waste, as well as about improved recyclability of materials and other aspects.

Achievements in improving the ecological characteristics of the automobile are highly impressive: A modern car emits only fractions of the amounts of noise and exhaust gas pollutants produced by its predecessors 30 years ago. The same trend can be found with all the other ecologically relevant automotive features so that the absolute impact of the automobile on our environment is considerably lower today than in the past. The contributions to this book were written by experts most of whom have been actively involved in the development of modern automobiles and their combustion engines for more than 30 years. They have participated in all phases of the ecological development of the automobile. At the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, these experts have summarized their experience and know-how in this book, which bears witness to the successful implementation of ecological considerations into automotive development work.