Exhaust gas gas is undesirable, noxious, or toxic substances, such as carbon monoxide (CO) from incomplete combustion, hydrocarbons (properly indicated as CH, but typically shown simply as "HC" on emissions-test slips) from unburnt fuel, nitrogen oxides (NO) from excessive combustion temperatures, and particulate matter (mostly soot). Exhaust gas temperature (EGT) is important to the functioning of the catalytic converter of an internal combustion engine. It may be measured by an exhaust gas temperature gauge. EGT is also a measure of engine health in gas-turbine engines (see below). During the first two minutes after starting the engine of a car that has not
Diesel exhaust process result in significant production of gaseous nitrogen oxides (NO), an air pollutant that constitutes a unique challenge with regard to their reduction. While total nitrogen oxides from petrol cars have decreased by around 96% through adoption of exhaust catalytic converters as of 2012, diesel cars still produce nitrogen oxides at a similar level to those bought 15 years earlier under real-world tests; hence, diesel cars emit around 20 times more nitrogen oxides than petrol cars. Modern on-road diesel engines typically use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to meet emissions laws, as other methods such as exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)