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The ubiquity of gasoline direct injection (GDI) vehicles has been rapidly increasing across the globe due to the increasing demand for fuel efficient vehicles. GDI technology offers many advantages over conventional port fuel injection (PFI) engines, such as improvements in fuel economy and higher engine power density; however, GDI technology presents unique challenges as well. GDI engines can be more susceptible to fuel injector deposits and have higher particulate emissions relative to PFI engines due to the placement of the injector inside the combustion chamber. Thus, the need for reliable test protocols to develop next generation additives to improve GDI vehicle performance is paramount. This work discloses a general test method for consistently fouling injectors in GDI vehicles and engines that can accommodate multiple vehicle/engine types, injector designs, and drive cycles, which allows for development of effective GDI fuel additives.

Diesel particle filters (DPF) have become a standard aftertreatment component for all current and future on-road diesel engines used in the US. In Europe the introduction of EUVI is expected to also result in the broad implementation of DPF's. The anticipated general trend in engine technology towards higher engine-out NOx/PM ratios results in a somewhat changing set of boundary conditions for the DPF predominantly enabling passive regeneration of the DPF. This enables the design of a novel filter concept optimized for low pressure drop, low thermal mass for optimized regeneration and fast heat-up of a downstream SCR system, therefore reducing CO₂ implications for the DPF operation. In this paper we will discuss results from a next-generation cordierite DPF designed to address these future needs.

Accelerated ash loading studies provide a cost-effective means of investigating the long-term impacts of ash accumulation in diesel particulate filters (DPFs). Despite a variety of methods adopted in previous studies for accelerated ash loading, evaluation of their impact on DPF behavior has been limited primarily to pressure drop response (with & without soot), and characterization of properties of the resulting ash deposits for comparison with samples from field testing. In the current study, the potential to use ash recovered from field DPFs to perform accelerated ash loading studies is explored. Additionally, anhydrous gypsum as a surrogate for diesel ash was investigated. Benefits of using gypsum include low cost and easy access, safety during handling and testing, and consistency from test to test. Narrow control of particle sizing and composition can help compare performance over a wide range of filter sizes and applications.

RDE test has been introduced to the light-duty vehicle certification process in both China 6 and Euro 6d standards. The RDE test shall be performed on-road with PEMS, which is developed to complement the current laboratory certification of vehicles and ensure cars to deliver low emissions under more realistic on-road driving conditions. Particulate matter has been highly perceived as a significant contributor to human health risks and thus strictly regulated globally. For the RDE evaluation, the MAW method used by the China 6 standard is usually found less stringent than the RMA method used by the Euro 6d standard. In the present study, both of the MAW and RMA methods were applied to different driving cycles and operating conditions, which met the general RDE test requirements, yet resulted in different evaluated PN results.

Because of the increased use of gasoline direct engine (GDI) in the automobile industry, there is a significant need to control particulates from GDI engines based on emission regulations. One potential technical approach is the utilization of a gasoline particulate filter (GPF). The successful adoption of this emission control technology needs to take many aspects into consideration and requires a system approach for optimization. This study conducted research to investigate the impact of vehicle driving cycles, fuel properties and catalyst coating on the performance of GPF. It was found that driving cycle has significant impact on particulate emission. Fuel quality still plays a role in particulate emissions, and can affect the GPF performance. Catalyzed GPF is preferred for soot regeneration, especially for the case that the vehicle operation is dominated by congested city driving condition, i.e. low operating temperatures. The details of the study are presented in the paper.

As the official proposal for emission regulation Euro 7 has been released by European Commission, PN above 10nm is taken into consideration for the ultrafine particulate emissions control. The challenges of GPF filtration efficiency emerge for the light-duty manufactures to meet the future emission standards. In the present study, a China 6 compliant vehicle was tested to reveal its performance over the China 6 standards and potential to meet the upcoming Euro 7. Three GPF product types (Gen 1, Gen 2, and concept Gen 3) were mounted to the tested vehicle. WLTC tests were conducted on chassis dynamometer in laboratory as well as a self-designed aggressive cycle (“Base Cycle”) tests. To explore the GPFs performance for PN emissions above 10nm against the proposed limit 6.0E11 #/km, PN emission above 10nm were measured in our laboratory tests for both engine out and tailpipe as well as the PN emission above 23nm.

Due to its simplicity and fuel economy benefit, continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Market penetration of CVT technology is increasing rapidly compared to step-type automatic transmission technology. OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and lubricant suppliers are working to further improve the fuel economy benefit of CVTs. As a lubricant supplier, we want to understand the effects of fluid properties on CVT fuel economy (FE). We have formulated fluids that had KV100 ranges from 2-4 cSt to 7-9 cSt with various types and viscosities of base oils. Wide ranges of viscosity indexes, steel-on-steel friction, and other properties were tested. Full vehicle fuel economy tests were performed in a temperature controlled environment with a robotic driver. The test revealed that there was more than 3% overall FE variation compared to a reference fluid.

When gasoline-fueled vehicles are operated in consumer service, the oil used to lubricate the engine plays a key role in engine cooling, reducing friction, maintaining efficient operation, and optimizing fuel economy. The effects of normal vehicle operation on oil deterioration have a direct impact on fuel consumption. The authors have observed substantial differences between the deterioration of engine oil and resulting fuel economy under real-world driving conditions, and the deterioration of oils and resulting fuel economy in the standard laboratory test used to assess fuel economy in North America, the Sequence VID engine test (ASTM D7589). By analyzing the data from vehicles and comparing these data to the Sequence VID the authors have proposed and evaluated several changes to the Sequence VID test that improve the correlation with real-world operation and improve test discrimination.

Catalyzed gasoline particulate filters (cGPF) are one of the most effective emission control technologies for reducing gaseous and particulate emissions simultaneously. Successful adoption of this advanced technology relies on several important performance properties including low back pressure, high filtration efficiency and specially durability compliance. In this work using an underfloor cGPF, the backpressure control was achieved through optimizing catalyst coating technology and modifying the deposition profile of catalyst coating along GPF channels. Durability performance was demonstrated by using an accelerated engine aging method with selective blending of lubricating oils in fuel, which incorporates the aging mechanisms of thermal aging, ash loading, and soot accumulation/regeneration. The target durability demonstration represents 200,000 km real world operation.

This paper details the development of the EX-80 composition, a new cordierite material for use as a diesel particulate filter (DPF), that was developed based on the following objectives; (1) improved thermal durability, (2) high filtration efficiency and (3) low pressure drop. The achievement of these goals was demonstrated through engine testing, stress modeling, and other evaluations. EX-80 has a low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) averaging less than 4x10-7°C-1 (25°C-800°C), the Modulus of Rupture (MOR) averages greater than 350 psi and the Modulus of Elasticity (MOE) averages less than 0.8 x 106 psi. The improvement of these three properties has resulted in improved thermal durability for EX-80 as compared to the current Corning DPF compositions (EX-47, EX-54 and EX-66). The new cordierite composition has been designed to achieve a low pressure drop as a function of soot loading (0.30 inHg/gm of soot collected), coupled with high efficiency, averaging greater than 90%.

The traditional vehicle-based approach to measuring the effect of oil-related fuel economy has relied on separate oil-aging and measurement processes where oil-aging takes place using an established driving protocol like the EPA Approved Mileage Accumulation (AMA) Driving Schedule for vehicle aging, then at set mileage intervals fuel economy is assessed using procedures such as the EPA FTP75 and Highway Fuel Economy emission test protocols described in 40 CFR, Parts 86 and 600. These test methods are useful for producing discrete snapshots of fuel economy at set mileage intervals but are unable to provide continuous information about oil-related changes in fuel economy. During the tests, the vehicle's fuel economy is indirectly calculated using a carbon-balance method of the bagged sample of dilute tailpipe emissions that effectively integrates the fuel economy of the vehicle during the sample interval which varies between eight and fifteen minutes.

This paper gives a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art in diesel emission control. The nature of diesel particulates is summarized. The variety of diesel particulate filter regeneration strategies that will become so important to filter application are reviewed. Filter retrofit and durability issues are addressed. DeNOx catalysts, SCR, NOx traps for diesel, and non-thermal plasma methods are summarized. Integrated NOx/PM systems are described. And reduction of exhaust toxics is discussed. The paper covers all major conferences in the year 2000 that occurred in the US and Europe. US and Europe.

This review summarizes the latest developments in diesel emissions regarding regulations, engines, NOx (nitrogen oxides) control, particulate matter (PM) reductions, and hydrocarbon (HC) and CO oxidation. Regulations are advancing with proposals for 70% tightening of fleet average light-duty (LD) criteria emissions likely to be proposed in California for ~2016-22. CO₂ regulations in both the heavy- and light-duty sectors will also tighten and impact diesel engines and emissions, probably long into the future. Engine technology is addressing these needs. Light-duty diesel engines are making incremental gains with combustion enhancements that allow downsizing for CO₂ savings. Heavy-duty (HD) engine show trade-offs between hardware recipes, exhaust deNOx control, and fuel consumption.

Honeycomb based diesel particulate filters have proven to be extremely effective in the removal of diesel soot. Under certain conditions, involving heavy soot loads and a shift of the engine into the idle mode during the early stages of the regeneration process, the current designs of cordierite filters have shown some tendency toward partial melting. A brief review of the SAE literature is presented, indicating that the temperatures reached during regeneration decrease substantially as the bulk heat capacity of the filter increases. Analysis of these literature data indicates that the top temperatures experienced during regeneration can be decreased by hundreds of degrees, by relatively modest increases in the bulk heat capacity of the bodies. New data are presented confirming how the top temperature varies with different filter designs in which the bulk heat capacity varies.

Gasoline particulate filter (GPF) is considered a suitable solution to meet the increasingly stringent particle number (PN) regulations for both gasoline direct injection (GDI) and multi-port fuel injection (MPI) engines. Generally, GDI engines emit more particulate matter (PM) and PN. In recent years, GDI engines have gained significant market penetration in the automobile industry owing to better fuel economy and drivability. In this study, an accelerated ash loading method was tested by doping lubricating oil into the fuel for a GDI engine. Emission tests were performed at different ash loads with different driving cycles and GPF combinations. The results showed that the GPF could significantly reduce particle emissions to meet the China 6 regulation. With further ash loading, the filtration efficiency increased above 99% and the effects on fuel consumption and backpressure were found to be limited, even with an ash loading of up to 50 g/l.

High boost and direct injection are effective ways for energy saving in gasoline engines. However, the occurrence of super-knock at high load has become a main obstacle for further improving power density and fuel economy. It has been known that super-knock can be induced by pre-ignition, and oil droplet auto-ignition is found to be one of the possible mechanisms. In this study, experiments were conducted in a single-cylinder thermal research engine (TRE), in which different types of oil and surrogates were directly injected into the cylinder and then led to pre-ignition and super-knock. The effect of oil injection timing, oil injection quantity, different gasoline and different oil were tested. All the oil in this work could induce pre-ignition, even though their combustion phasing was much later than that in the case of n-hexadecane.

In this paper, the impacts of Aromatic and Olefin on the formation of poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine were experimentally and numerically investigated. The objective of this study is to describe the formation process of the soot precursors including one ring to four ring aromatics (A1-A4). In order to better understand the effects of the fuel properties on the formations of PAHs. Three types of fuels, namely base gasoline, gasoline with higher aromatics content, and gasoline with higher olefin content were experimentally studied. At the same time, these aspects were also numerically investigated in the CHEMKIN code by using premixed laminar flame model and surrogated fuels. The results show that higher aromatics content in gasoline will lead to much higher PAHs formation. Similar trend was also found in the gasoline with higher olefin content.

Catalyzed gasoline particulate filter (cGPF) is the prime technology to meet future stringent regulations for particulates from gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines. One of the technical concerns is the ultimate durability of cGPF in regards to engine lubricant formulations. This study investigated two tailored lubricant formulations on catalyzed GPFs which were aged on engine followed by emission testing on vehicle. An engine accelerated aging protocol was developed for cGPFs to simulate thermal aging, ash and soot loading that is at least equivalent to 200,000 km durability requirement. Evaluations include tailpipe emission levels, backpressure, catalytic performance, and post-mortem analysis. Both formulations have demonstrated a high level of cGPF performance retention; performance being assessed in terms of emission level at the end of durability demonstration testing. These formulations provide flexibility in selecting robust lubricant to meet various system requirements.

The gasoline particulate filter (GPF) represents a practical solution for particulate emissions control in light-duty gasoline-fueled vehicles. It is also seen as an essential technology in North America to meet the upcoming US EPA tailpipe emission regulation, as proposed in the “Multi-pollutant Rule for Model Year 2027”. The goal of this study was to introduce advanced, uncoated GPF products and measure their particulate mass (PM) reduction performance within the existing US EPA FTP vehicle testing procedures, as detailed in Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) part 1066. Various state-of-the-art GPF products were characterized for their microstructure properties with lab-bench checks for pressure drop and filtration efficiency, then pre-conditioned with an EPA-recommended 1500 mile on-road break-in, and finally were tested on an AWD vehicle chassis-dyno emissions test cell at both 25°C and -7°C ambient conditions.

The ceramic wall-flow filter has now been globally commercialized for aftertreatment systems in light-duty gasoline engine powered vehicles. This technology, known as the gasoline particulate filter (GPF), represents a durable solution for particulate emissions control. The goal of this study was to track the evolution of tailpipe particulate and gaseous emissions of a 4-cylinder gasoline turbocharged direct injected (GTDI) 2018 North American (NA) mild-hybrid light-duty SUV, from a fresh state to the 4,000-mile, EPA certification mileage level. For this purpose, a production TWC + GPF aftertreatment system designed for a China 6b-compliant variant of this test vehicle was retrofitted in place of the North American Tier 3 Bin 85 TWC-only system. Chassis dyno emissions testing was performed at predetermined mileage points with real-world, on-road driving conducted for the necessary mileage accumulation.