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A new after-treatment system called DPNR (Diesel Particulate-NOx Reduction System) has been developed for simultaneous and continuous reduction of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) in diesel exhaust gas. This system consists of both a new catalytic technology and a new diesel combustion technology which enables rich operating conditions in diesel engines. The catalytic converter for the DPNR has a newly developed porous ceramic structure coated with a NOx storage reduction catalyst. A fresh DPNR catalyst reduced more than 80 % of both PM and NOx. This paper describes the concept and performance of the system in detail. Especially, the details of the PM oxidation mechanism in DPNR are described.

A highly efficient new 2.8-liter inline 4-cylinder diesel engine has been developed in response to growing demand for diesel engines and to help save energy while providing high-torque performance. Engine efficiency was improved by reducing cooling loss based on an innovative combustion concept applied across the whole engine. Cooling loss was reduced by restricting in-cylinder gas flows and improving combustion chamber insulation. To prevent the restricted gas flows from affecting emissions, a new combustion chamber shape was developed that increased air utilization in the cylinder through optimizing the in-cylinder fuel distribution. Combustion chamber insulation was improved by a new insulation coat that changes the wall surface temperature in accordance with the gas temperature. This reduces cooling loss and avoids the trade-off effect of intake air heating.

In enhancing the performance of automotive internal combustion engines, increasing the compression ratio offers an effective means of improving engine thermal efficiency. If the compression ratio is increased, however, the problem of knock occurs in exchange for improvement in engine thermal efficiency. In other words, an increase in compression ratio causes in-cylinder compressive end gas temperature to rise, resulting in the occurrence of knock. This in turn requires ignition timing retard to combat the knock. This trade-off makes it difficult to achieve the theoretical maximum combustion efficiency. In this paper, we clarify the feasibility of suppressing the occurrence of knock by increasing the burn rate. Specifically, we increase the burn rate by injecting high-pressure air directly into the combustion chamber, causing highly turbulent in-cylinder flow.

From the point of global and local environment, internal combustion engine is facing the need for significant improvement of exhaust emission. Especially, important is the reduction of unburned hydrocarbon (HC) from fuel film on liner under cold condition. In this study, at first, quantitative fuel film measurement technique by using Laser Induced Exciplex Fluorescence (LIEF) was developed. For the light source, 4th harmonic pulse yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) laser (266nm) was used. For the tracer, the combination of N,N-Dimethylaniline (DMA) and naphthalene was used and quantitative concentration was decided by calibration test. With LIEF, the distribution of fuel film can be obtained by measuring the fluorescence only from the liquid phase. In order to evaluate the effect of fuel film on exhaust HC emission from engine, the film distribution was measured using quartz glass liner. For the injector, a prototype 6-hole gasoline injector was used.

Diesel particulate and NOx reduction system (DPNR) is an effective technology for the diesel after-treatment system, which can reduce particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) simultaneously. The DPNR has been developed under the Toyota D-CAT (Diesel Clean Advanced Technology) concept. Further improvement of the DPNR is hoped for cleaner air in the future. This paper reviews the results of our study to improve the NOx purification performance on the DPNR. The NOx reduction performance of the catalysts deteriorates due to thermal deterioration and sulfur poisoning. In order to improve the thermal resistance of the catalysts, the suppression of precious metal sintering in the catalyst has been studied. As a result, higher catalytic activity after aging especially under lower temperature conditions was obtained. On the other hands, improvement of desulfurization performance is one of the key technologies in order to keep the high NOx reduction capability of the catalyst.

Low pressure loop (LPL) EGR systems are effective means of simultaneously reducing the NOx emissions and fuel consumption of diesel engines. Further lower emission levels can be achieved by adopting a system that combines LPL EGR with a NOx storage and reduction (NSR) catalyst. However, this combined system has to overcome the issue of combustion fluctuations resulting from changes in the air-fuel ratio due to EGR gas recirculation from either NOx reduction control or diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration. The aim of this research was to reduce combustion fluctuations by developing LPL EGR control logic. In order to control the combustion fluctuations caused by LPL EGR, it is necessary to estimate the recirculation time. First, recirculation delay was investigated. It was found that recirculation delay becomes longer when the LPL EGR flow rate or engine speed is low.

Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) is widely used to develop engine combustion. Especially the in-cylinder spray calculation is important in order to resolve the issues of direct injection gasoline engines (e.g., particulate matter (PM) and oil dilution caused by fuel wetting on the cylinder walls). Conventional spray calculation methods require fitting based on measurements of spray characteristics such as penetration and droplet diameter (i.e., the Sauter mean diameter (SMD)). Particularly in the case of slit nozzle shapes that widen from the inlet to the outlet to form a fan-shaped spray, fitting the shape of spray is a complex procedure because the flow inside the nozzle is not uniform. In response, a new calculation method has been developed that eliminates the need for spray shape fitting by combining calculations of the Eulerian multiphase and the Lagrangian multiphase.

Combustion of a lean air-fuel mixture diluted with a large amount of air or Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) gas is one of the important technologies that can reduce thermal NOx and improve gasoline engine fuel economy by reducing cooling loss. On the other hand, lean combustion increases unburned Hydro Carbon (HC) and unburned loss compared to stoichiometric combustion. This is because lean combustion reduces the burning rate of the air-fuel mixture and forms a thick quenching layer near the wall surface. In this study, the relationship between the thickness of the unburned HC and the excess air ratio is analyzed using Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) method and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) of combustion. The HC distribution near the engine liner when the excess air ratio is increased is investigated by LIF. As a result, it is found that the quenching distance of the flame in the cylinder is larger for lean conditions than the general single-wall quenching relationship.

The Raman scattering method has been developed for the simultaneous, cycle by cycle measurement of HC, O2, H2O, and N2 in a direct injection gasoline engine with EGR. By using the Raman scattering method, the effect of EGR on stratified charge combustion can be investigated in a direct injection SI gasoline engine. The results show that (1) at the compression stroke homogeneous EGR gas exists, (2) variation of component mass fraction of EGR (qualitative fluctuation) introduced in the previous combustion cycle is the primary reason for EGR fluctuation, (3) under normal operating conditions, EGR fluctuation (component mass fraction and quantitative fluctuation) doesn't influence on the combustion fluctuation at the stratified charge operation.