Toyota Found a Way to Predict Tropospheric Ozone

Trying to make amends for being, for years, one of the companies that have been responsible for sending tons and tons of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, Toyota has picked up in recent years all sorts of eco-habits.

With the help of its Toyota Central R&D Labs division, the car maker wanted to see if it can devise a way through which it may simulate and predict the path one of the most harmful greenhouse gases in our air will take: tropospheric ozone.

This gas, resulted from the reaction of ozone with incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, is a pollutant harmful to human health and plant growth, and a constituent of smog. Toyota's simulator, developed in collaboration with several international research institutions, is meant to predict tropospheric ozone concentrations and simulate their movement.

The goal of the entire project was to give scientists a tool through which to predict tropospheric ozone concentrations across the whole of South and East Asia. By doing so, the countries in the region should be able to reduce energy consumption and limit emissions of the substances that constitute pollutants.

“ The main benefit of the simulator is the ability to comprehensively investigate policies needed for tropospheric ozone reduction, CO2 reduction scenarios and atmospheric improvement scenarios,” says the Japanese automaker.

“Looking ahead, Toyota hopes the simulator will be used widely across the various countries and regions of South and East Asia.”

Toyota plans to showcase the simulator during a two-day international workshop that will be held at Tsinghua University in China on May 26 and 27.