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Experimental studies were carried out to investigate the effect of soot deposition on NOx purification phenomena in an ammonia selective catalytic reduction coated diesel particulate filter (SCR/DPF) catalyst. To study soot deposition effects on the chemical reactions and mass transfer, two types of testing device were used. A synthetic gas bench enabling tests to be conducted with temperature and flow rate ranges relevant to real driving conditions was used to investigate the soot influence on reduction of NOx to N2 (DeNOx). A micro-reactor that removed the effect of soot deposition on mass transfer in the catalyst layer was used to analyze chemical reactions on a soot surface and their interaction with the SCR catalyst. A filter test brick of a Cu-zeolite SCR/DPF catalyst and a powder catalyst were used for the synthetic gas bench and micro-reactor tests, respectively. Engine soot was sampled in all the tests.

Ammonia-selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems have been introduced commercially in diesel vehicles, however catalyst systems with higher conversion efficiency and better control characteristics are required to know the actual emissions during operation and the emissions in random test cycles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an effective approach when applied to SCR catalyst development, and many models have been proposed, but these models need experimental verification and are limited in the situations they apply to. Further, taking account of redox cycle is important to have better accuracy in transient operation, however there are few models considering the cycle. Model development considering the redox reactions in a zeolite catalyst, Cu-ZSM-5, is the object of the research here, and the effects of exhaust gas composition on the SCR reaction and NH3 oxidation at high temperatures are investigated.

Experimental and numerical studies were conducted on diesel particulate filters (DPFs) under different soot loading conditions and DPF configurations. Pressure drops across DPFs with various mean pore diameters loaded with soots having different mean particle diameters were measured by introducing exhaust gases from a 2.2 liter inline four-cylinder, TCI diesel engine designed for use in passenger cars. A mechanistic hypothesis was then proposed to explain the observed trends, accounting for the effects of the soot loading regime in the wall and the soot cake layer on the pressure drop. This hypothesis was used to guide the development and validation of a numerical model for predicting the pressure drop in the DPF. The relationship between the permeability and the porosity of the wall and soot cake layer was modeled under various soot loading conditions.

The reduced chemical reaction scheme which can take the effect of major fuel components on auto ignition timing into account has been developed. This reaction scheme was based on the reduced reaction mechanism for the primary reference fuels (PRF) proposed by Tsurushima [1] with 33 species and 38 reactions. Some pre-exponential factors were modified by using Particle Swarm Optimization to match the ignition delay time versus reciprocal temperature which was calculated by the detailed scheme with 2,301 species and 11,116 elementary chemical reactions. The result using the present reaction scheme shows good agreements with that using the detailed scheme for the effects of EGR, fuel components, and radical species on the ignition timing under homogeneous charge compression ignition combustion (HCCI) conditions.

Three-way catalyst (TWC) converters are used to remove harmful substances (e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and hydrocarbons (HC)) emitted from gasoline engines. However, a large amount of emissions could be emitted before the TWC reaches its light-off temperature during a cold start. For hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) powered by gasoline engines, the emission purification performance by TWC converters unfortunately deteriorates because of mode switching from engine to battery and vice versa, which can repeatedly generate cold start conditions for the TWCs. In this study, aiming to reduce emissions from series HEVs by early activation of TWCs, numerical simulations and experiments are carried out. An HEV is tested on a chassis dynamometer in the Worldwide Light-duty Test Cycle (WLTC) mode. The upstream and downstream gas conditions of the close-coupled catalyst converter are measured.

This paper describes a method for estimating constants related to NH3 gas diffusion phenomena to the active sites in a selective catalytic reduction diesel particulate filter (SCR/DPF) catalyst. A simple one-dimensional NH3 gas diffusion model based on the pore structure inside the catalyst was developed and used to estimate the intracrystalline diffusion coefficient. It was shown that the estimated value agreed well with experimental data.

Three-way catalyst (TWC) converters are often used to purify toxic substances contained in exhaust emissions from gasoline engines. However, a large amount of CO, NOx and THC may be emitted before the TWC reaches its light-off temperature during a cold start. In this work, a numerical model was developed for studying the purification performance of a close-coupled TWC converter during the cold start period. The TWC model was built using axisuite, commercial software by Exothermia S.A. Model gas experiments were designed for calibrating the chemical reaction scheme and corresponding reaction rate parameters in the TWC model. The TWC model was able to simulate the purification performance of CO, NOx and THC under both lean and rich air-fuel equivalence ratios (λ) for different conditions. The light-off temperature and oxygen storage capacity (OSC) behavior were also successfully validated in the model. Vehicle tests were conducted on a chassis dynamometer to verify the TWC model.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the potential of lean burn combustion to improve the thermal efficiency of spark ignition engine. Experiments used a single cylinder gasoline spark ignition engine fueled with primary reference fuel of octane number 90, running at 4000 revolution per minute and at wide open throttle. Experiments were conducted at constant fueling rate and in order to lean the mixture, more air is introduced by boosted pressure from stoichiometric mixture to lean limit while maintaining the high output engine torque as possible. Experimental results show that the highest thermal efficiency is obtained at excess air ratio of 1.3 combined with absolute boosted pressure of 117 kPa. Three dimensional computational fluid dynamic simulation with detailed chemical reactions was conducted and compared with results obtained from experiments as based points.

Pre-chamber (PC) natural gas and hydrogen (CH4-H2) combustion can improve thermal efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions from decarbonized stationary engines. However, the engine efficiency is worsened by prolonged combustion duration due to PC jet velocity extinction. This work investigates the impact of cylindrical PC internal shapes to increase its jet velocity and shorten combustion duration. A rapid compression and expansion machine (RCEM) is used to investigate the combustion characteristics of premixed CH4 gas. The combustion images are recorded using a high-speed camera of 10,000 fps. The experiments are conducted using two types of long PC shapes with diameters φ=4 mm (hereafter, longφ4) and 5 mm (hereafter, long φ5), and their combustions are compared against a short PC shape (φ=12 mm). For all designs of the PC shapes, the PC holes are 6 with 2 mm in diameter.

Synthetic fuels can significantly improve the combustion and emission characteristics of heavy-duty diesel engines toward decarbonizing heavy-duty propulsion systems. This work analyzes the effects of engine operating conditions and synthetic fuel properties on spray, combustion, and emissions (soot, NOx) using a supercharging single-cylinder engine experiment and KIVA-4 code combined with CHEMKIN-II and in-house phenomenological soot model. The blended fuel ratio is fixed at 80% diesel and 20% n-paraffin by volume (hereafter DP). Diesel, DP1 (diesel with n-pentane C5H12), DP2 (diesel with n-hexane C6H14), and DP3 (diesel with n-heptane C7H16) are used in engine-like-condition constant volume chamber (CVC) and engine experiments. Boosted engine experiments (1080 rpm, common-rail injection pressure 160 MPa, multi-pulse injection) are performed using the same DP fuel groups under various main injection timings, pulse-injection intervals, and EGR = 0-40%.

In a Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) and Catalyzed Soot Filter (CSF) system, the DOC is used to oxidize additional fuel injected into the cylinder and/or exhaust pipe in order to increase the CSF's inlet temperature during soot regeneration. The catalyst's hydrocarbon (HC) oxidation performance is known to be strongly affected by the HC species present and the catalyst design. However, the engine operating conditions and additive fuel supply parameters also affect the oxidation performance of DOCs, but the effects of these variables have been insufficiently examined. Therefore, in this study, the oxidation performance of a DOC was examined in experiments in which both exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) levels and exhaust pipe injection parameters were varied. The results were then analyzed and optimal conditions were identified using modeFRONTIER.