New Bimmers Clean as They Go

Several years ago engineers at Engelhard Corp. developed a catalytic 
coating that destroyed ozone in the ambient air and prevented its release 
into the atmosphere. The Engelhard engineers further reckoned that if they 
coated the radiator of an automobile with the catalytic coating, then as a 
car was driven the air passing through the radiator would be cleansed of ozone.

In 1995 Engelhard and Ford collaborated on installing the catalytic 
radiators on a fleet of Ford cars for testing. The tests showed that 
Engelhard's projected claims and benefits of the system were somewhat 
overstated. Ford ditched the program and not too much has been heard about 
it since. Until today, that is.

We're not sure what has changed, but BMW has just announced that it will 
install Engelhard's PremAir ozone eating catalyst on BMW Partial Zero 
Emission Vehicles (PZEVs) sold in California, New York, Vermont, Maine and 
Massachusetts. The models will be 2003 325i sedans equipped with an 
automatic transmission, and which have been awarded PZEV certification by 
the California Air Resource Board.

According to Engelhard, the current PremAir technology is capable of 
destroying up to 80% of the harmful ground-level ozone in the air that 
passes across it. This ozone becomes the main component of smog and has 
been directly linked to asthma and other respiratory problems.

While it's not clear what has changed since the Ford tests in 1995, there 
does appear to be renewed interest in the catalyst technology and some 
strong indications that it works. BMW reports that it conducted extensive 
tests that proved the catalyst met its standards for ozone reduction, 
offering good durability, cost effectiveness and negligible impact on 
radiator performance.