Technical Paper
Reduction of CO2 Emissions through Lubricant Thermal Management During the Warm Up of Passenger Car Engines
2016-04-05
2016-01-0892
Most major regional automotive markets have stringent legislative targets for vehicle greenhouse gas emissions or fuel economy enforced by fiscal penalties. Large improvements in vehicle efficiency on mandated test cycles have already taken place in some markets through the widespread adoption of technologies such as downsizing or dieselisation. There is now increased focus on approaches which give smaller, but significant incremental efficiency benefits, such as reducing parasitic losses due to engine friction. The reduction in tail pipe CO2 emissions through the reduction of engine friction using lubricants has been reported by many authors. However, opportunities also exist to reduce the lubricant viscosity during warm up by the thermal management of the lubricant mass.
