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With Post Euro 6 emission standards in discussion, stricter particulate number (PN) targets as well as a decreased PN cut-off size from 23 to 10 nm are expected. Sub-23 nm particulates are considered particularly harmful to human health, but are not yet taken into account in the current vehicle certification process. Not considering sub-23 nm particulates during the development process could lead to significant additional efforts for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) to comply with future Post Euro 6 PN emission limits. It is therefore essential to increase knowledge about the formation and filtration of particulates below 23 nm. In the present study, a holistic Gasoline Particulate Filter (GPF) characterization has been carried out on an engine test bench under varying boundary conditions and on a burner bench with a novel ash loading methodology.

Exhaust aftertreatment systems must function sufficiently over the full useful life of a vehicle. In Europe this is currently defined as 160.000 km. With the introduction of Euro 7 it is expected that the required mileage will be extended to 240.000 km. This will then be consistent with the US legislation. In order to quantify the emission impact of exhaust system degradation, an Euro 7 exhaust aftertreatment system is aged by different accelerated approaches: application of the Standard Bench Cycle, the ZDAKW cycle, a novel ash loading method and borderline aging. The results depict the impact of oil ash on the oxygen storage capacity. For tailpipe emissions, the maximum peak temperatures are the dominant aging factor. The cold start performance is effected by both, thermal degradation and ash accumulation. An evaluation of this emission increase requires appropriate benchmarks.

Current progress in the development of diesel engines substantially contributes to the reduction of NOx and Particulate Matter (PM) emissions but will not succeed to eliminate the application of Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) in the future. In the past we have introduced a Multi-Functional Reactor (MFR) prototype, suitable for the abatement of the gaseous and PM emissions of the Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) engine operation. In this work the performance of MFR prototypes under both conventional and advanced combustion engine operating conditions is presented. The effect of the MFR on the fuel penalty associated to the filter regeneration is assessed via simulation. Special focus is placed on presenting the performance assessment in combination with the existing differences in the morphology and reactivity of the soot particles between the different modes of diesel engine operation (conventional and advanced). The effect of aging on the MFR performance is also presented.

In order to thoroughly investigate and improve the path from biofuel production to combustion, the Cluster of Excellence “Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass” was installed at RWTH Aachen University in 2007. Since then, a variety of fuel candidates have been investigated. In particular, 2-methyl tetrahydrofurane (2-MTHF) has shown excellent performance w.r.t. the particulate (PM) / NOx trade-off [1]. Unfortunately, the long ignition delay results in increased HC-, CO- and noise emissions. To overcome this problem, the addition of di-n-butylether (DNBE, CN ∼ 100) to 2-MTHF was analyzed. By blending these two in different volumetric shares, the effects of the different mixture formation and combustion characteristics, especially on the HC-, CO- and noise emissions, have been carefully analyzed. In addition, the overall emission performance has been compared to EN590 diesel.

The HSDI Diesel engine contributes substantially to the decrease of fleet fuel consumption thus to the reduction of CO2 emissions. This results in the rising market acceptance which is supported by desirable driving performance as well as greatly improved NVH behavior. In addition to the above mentioned requirements on driving performance, fuel economy and NVH behavior, continuously increasing demands on emissions performance have to be met. From today's view the Diesel particulate trap presents a safe technology to achieve the required reduction of the particle emission of more than 95%. However, according to today's knowledge a further, substantial NOx engine-out emission reduction for the Diesel engine is counteracts with the other goal of reduced fuel consumption. To comply with current and future emission standards, Diesel engines will require DeNOx technologies.

Representative Interactive Flamelets (RIF) have proven successful in predicting Diesel engine combustion. The RIF concept is based on the assumption that chemistry is fast compared to the smallest turbulent time scales, associated with the turnover time of a Kolmogorov eddy. The assumption of fast chemistry may become questionable with respect to the prediction of pollutant formation; the formation of NOx, for example, is a rather slow process. For this reason, three different approaches to account for NOx emissions within the flamelet approach are presented and discussed in this study. This includes taking the pollutant mass fractions directly from the flamelet equations, a technique based on a three-dimensional transport equation as well as the extended Zeldovich mechanism. Combustion and pollutant emissions in a Common-Rail DI Diesel engine are numerically investigated using the RIF concept. Special emphasis is put on NOx emissions.

The future worldwide emission regulations will request a drastic decrease of Diesel engine tailpipe emissions. Depending on the planned application and the real official regulations, a further strong decrease of engine out emissions is necessary, even though the utilized exhaust after-treatment systems are very powerful. To reduce NOx emissions internally, the external exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is known as the most effective way. Due to the continuously increasing requirements regarding specific power, dynamic behavior and low emissions, future air path systems have to fulfill higher requirements and, consequently, become more and more complex, e.g. arrangements with a 2-stage turbo charging or 2-stage EGR system with different stages of cooling performance.

In Common-Rail DI Diesel Engines, a low combustion temperature process is considered as one of the most important possibilities to achieve very small emissions and optimum performance. To reduce NOx and Soot strongly, it is necessary to achieve a homogenization of the mixture in order to avoid the higher local temperatures which are responsible for the NOx formation [1]. Through the homogenization it is also possible to obtain a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio in order to significantly reduce the Soot emissions. One way to achieve this homogeneous condition is to start injection very early together with the use of higher EGR rates. The direct effect of these conditions cause a longer ignition delay (this is the time between start of the injection and auto-ignition during physical and chemical sub processes such as fuel atomization, evaporation, fuel air mixing and chemical pre-reactions take place) so that the mixture formation has more time to achieve a homogeneous state.

This paper describes an alternative catalyst aging process using a hot gas test stand for thermal aging. The solution presented is characterized by a burner technology that is combined with a combustion enhancement, which allows stoichiometric and rich operating conditions to simulate engine exhaust gases. The resulting efficiency was increased and the operation limits were broadened, compared to combustion engines that are typically used for catalyst aging. The primary modification that enabled this achievement was the recirculation of exhaust gas downstream from catalyst back to the burner. The burner allows the running simplified dynamic durability cycles, which are the standard bench cycle that is defined by the legislation as alternative aging procedure and the fuel shut-off simulation cycle ZDAKW. The hot gas test stand approach has been compared to the conventional engine test bench method.

Fuels derived from biomass will most likely contain oxygen due to the high amount of hydrogen needed to remove oxygen in the production process. Today, alcohol fuels (e. g. ethanol) are well understood for spark ignition engines. The Institute for Combustion Engines at RWTH Aachen University carried out a fuel investigation program to explore the potential of alcohol fuels as candidates for future compression ignition engines to reduce engine-out emissions while maintaining engine efficiency and an acceptable noise level. The soot formation and oxidation process when using alcohol fuels in diesel engines is not yet sufficiently understood. Depending on the chain length, alcohol fuels vary in cetane number and boiling temperature. Decanol possesses a diesel-like cetane number and a boiling point in the range of the diesel boiling curve. Thus, decanol was selected as an alcohol representative to investigate the influence of the oxygen content of an alcohol on the combustion performance.

The European research co-operation Lotus is presented. The main objectives of the project were i) to show the potential for a urea-based SCR system to comply with the EU standard of years 2005 and 2008 for heavy-duty Diesel engines for different driving conditions with optimal fuel consumption, ii) to reach 95 % conversion of NOx at steady state at full load on a Euro III engine, iii) to reach 75 % NOx reduction for exhaust temperatures between 200-300°C, and 85 % average NOx reduction between 200-500°C. The energy content of the consumed urea should not exceed 1.0 %, calculated as specific fuel consumption. These targets were met in May 2003 and the Lotus SCR system fulfilled the Euro V NOx legislative objectives for year 2008.

This paper focuses on start-up technology for fuel processing systems with special emphasis on gasoline fueled burners. Initially two different fuel processing systems, an autothermal reformer with preferential oxidation and a steam reformer with membrane, are introduced and their possible starting strategies are discussed. Energy consumption for preheating up to light-off temperature and the start-up time is estimated. Subsequently electrical preheating is compared with start-up burners and the different types of heat generation are rated with respect to the requirements on start-up systems. Preheating power for fuel cell propulsion systems necessarily reaches up to the magnitude of the electrical fuel cell power output. A gasoline fueled burner with thermal combustion has been build-up, which covers the required preheating power.

In order to comply with demanding Greenhous Gas (GHG) standards, future automotive engines employ advanced engine technologies including waste heat recovery (WHR) systems. A waste heat recovery system converts part of engine wasted exergies to useful work which can be fed back to the engine. Utilizing this additional output power leads to lower specific fuel consumption and CO2 emission when the total output power equals the original engine output power. Engine calibration strategies for reductions in specific fuel consumption typically results in a natural increase of NOx emissions. The utilization of waste heat recovery systems provides a pathway which gives both reduction in emissions and reduction in specific fuel consumption. According to DOE (Department of Energy), US heavy-duty truck engines’ technology need to be upgraded towards higher brake thermal efficiencies (BTE). DOE target is BTE>55% for Class-8 heavy-duty vehicles in the United States.

Both, the continuous strengthening of the exhaust emission legislation and the striving for a substantial reduction of carbon dioxide output in the traffic sector depict substantial requirements for the development of future diesel engines. These engines will comprise not only the mandatory diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and particulate filter DPF but a NOx aftertreatment system as well - at least for heavier vehicles. The oxidation catalysts as well as currently available NOx aftertreatment technologies, i.e., LNT and SCR, rely on sufficient exhaust gas temperatures to achieve a proper conversion. This is getting more and more critical due to the fact that today's and future measures for CO₂ reduction will result in further decrease of engine-out temperatures. Additionally this development has to be considered in the light of further engine electrification and hybridization scenarios.

For compliance with legislative regulations as well as restricted resources of fossil fuel, it is essential to further reduce engine-out emissions and increase engine efficiency. As a result of lower peak temperatures and increased homogeneity, premixed Low-Temperature Combustion (LTC) has the potential to simultaneously reduce nitrogen oxides (BSNOx) and soot. However, LTC can lead to higher emissions of unburnt total hydrocarbons (BSTHC) and carbon monoxide (BSCO). Furthermore, losses in efficiency are often observed, due to early combustion phasing (CA50) before top dead center (bTDC). Various studies have shown possibilities to counteract these drawbacks, such as split-injection strategies or different nozzle geometries. In this work, the combination of both is investigated. Three different nozzle geometries with included spray angles of 100°, 120°, and 148° and four injection strategies are applied to investigate the engine performance.

Using a holistic 1D engine simulation approach for the modelling of full-transient engine operation, allows analyzing future engine concepts, including its exhaust gas aftertreatment technology, early in the development process. Thus, this approach enables the investigation of both important fields - the thermodynamic engine process and the aftertreatment system, together with their interaction in a single simulation environment. Regarding the aftertreatment system, the kinetic reaction behavior of state-of-the-art and advanced components, such as Diesel Oxidation Catalysts (DOC) or Selective Catalytic Reduction Soot Filters (SCRF), is being modelled. Furthermore, the authors present the use of the 1D engine and exhaust gas aftertreatment model on use cases of variable valve train (VVT) applications on passenger car (PC) diesel engines.

A vehicle investigation programme was initiated to evaluate the influence of diesel fuel sulfur content on the performance of a DeNOx catalyst for NOx control. The programme was conducted with a passive DeNOx catalyst, selected for its good NOx reduction performance and two specially prepared fuels with different sulfur contents. Regulated emissions were measured and analysed during the course of the programme. The NOx conversion efficiency of the DeNOx catalyst increased from 14 to 26% over the new European test cycle when the sulfur content of the diesel fuel was reduced from 49 to 6 wt.-ppm. In addition the number and size of particles produced using 6 wt.-ppm sulfur fuel were measured by two different techniques: mobility diameter by SMPS and aerodynamic diameter by impactor. The influence of the assumed density of the particulate on the apparent diameters measured by the two techniques is discussed.

In the recent years, it has become obvious that one of the main fields of interest in alternate fuels is the public transportation sector. Natural Gas seems to be advantageous. It is available and environmentally friendly, even if the greenhouse effect of methane is considered. The operation range of vehicles running on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) is poor due to the large pressure vessels, but in case of urban buses with low daily mileage this is acceptable. On the other hand, the use of an environmentally friendly fuel is favorable especially in urban areas. Although there are some advantages of Natural Gas, diesel buses dominate the market. The reason is the better part-load fuel efficiency of the Diesel principle which is superior to the Otto-cycle due to the absence of engine throttling. The efficiency levels of Spark-Ignition (SI) -type, Lean Burn Natural Gas engines are quite comparable to diesel engines during full load conditions.

Premixed charged compression ignition (PCCI) is an advanced combustion strategy, which has the potential to achieve ultra-low nitrogen oxide and soot emissions at high thermal efficiencies. PCCI combustion is characterized by a complex nonlinear chemical-physical process, which indicates that a physical description involves significant development times and also high computation cost. This paper presents a method to use cylinder pressure data and engine operations parameters for prediction of PCCI engine emissions by unsupervised learning and nonlinear identification techniques. The proposed method first uses principal component analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimension of the cylinder-pressure data. Based on the PCA analysis, a multi-input multi-out model was developed for nitrogen oxide and soot emission prediction by multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network.

Today, natural gas engines for stationary and vehicular applications are not only faced with stringent emission legislation, but also with increasing requirements for power density and efficient fuel consumption. For vehicular use, downsizing is an advantageous approach to lowering on-road fuel consumption and making gas engines more competitive with their diesel counterparts. In SI-engines, the power density at a given compression ratio is limited by knocking, or NOx emissions. A decrease in compression ratio, lowering both NOx emissions and the risk of knocking combustion, increases fuel consumption. An increase in air-fuel-ratio, required to avoid knocking at higher thermal loading, increases boost pressure, HC and CO emissions, and mechanical loading and causes the danger of misfiring. As a result, the performance of the latest production gas engines for vehicles remains at a BMEP of 18…20 bar with a NOx emission level of 2…5 g/kWh.