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Alcohols (methanol and ethanol) have been identified as having the potential to improve air quality when used to replace conventional gasoline. This potential is primarily due to the different organic species that are emitted by alcohol-fueled engines. The use of “near neat” alcohols gives greater benefits than fuels containing lower levels of alcohol, but neat alcohols present a significant cold starting problem. The primary objective of this study was to develop a rich combustor device which will extend the cold start range of alcohol fueled engines to -30° C. In this approach a portion of the fuel is burned outside the engine under fuel-rich conditions. This rich combustion creates a product stream that contains significant amounts of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (along with other gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapor, and organics). The hydrogen and carbon monoxide are combustible and non-condensable and provide the fuel for starting the engine.

The aggressive reduction of future diesel engine NOx emission limits forces the heavy- and light-duty diesel engine manufacturers to develop means to comply with stringent legislation. As a result, different exhaust emission control technologies applicable to NOx have been the subject of many investigations. One of these systems is the NOx adsorber catalyst, which has shown high NOx conversion rates during previous investigations with acceptable fuel consumption penalties. In addition, the NOx adsorber catalyst does not require a secondary on-board reductant. However, the NOx adsorber catalyst also represents the most sulfur sensitive emissions control device currently under investigation for advanced NOx control. To remove the sulfur introduced into the system through the diesel fuel and stored on the catalyst sites during operation, specific regeneration strategies and boundary conditions were investigated and developed.