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Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines have been developed rapidly in recent years, driven by stringent legislative requirements on vehicle fuel efficiency and emissions. However, one challenge facing GDI is the formation of particulate emissions, particularly with the presence of injector tip deposits. The Chinese market features some gasoline fuels that contain no detergent additives and are prone to deposit formation, which can affect engine performance and emissions. The use of detergent additives to mitigate the formation of injector deposits in a GDI engine was investigated in this study by testing a 1.5L turbocharged GDI engine available in the Chinese market. The engine was operated both on base gasoline and on gasoline dosed with detergent additives to evaluate the effect on injector deposit formation and engine performance and emissions.

Injector nozzle deposits can have a profound effect on particulate emissions from vehicles fitted with Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines. Several recent publications acknowledge the benefits of using Deposit Control Additives (DCA) to maintain or restore injector cleanliness and in turn minimise particulates, but others claim that high levels of DCA could have detrimental effects due to the direct contribution of DCA to particulates, that outweigh the benefits of injector cleanliness. Much of the aforementioned work was conducted in laboratory scenarios with model fuels. In this investigation a fleet of 7 used GDI vehicles were taken from the field to determine the net impact of DCAs on particulates in real-world scenarios. The vehicles tested comprised a range of vehicles from different manufacturers that were certified to Euro 5 and Euro 6 emissions standards.

Diesel particulate filter (DPF) is necessary for diesel engines to meet the increasingly stringent emission regulations. Many studies have demonstrated that the lubricant derived ash has a significant effect on DPF pressure drop and engine fuel economy, and this effect becomes more and more severe with the increasing of operating hours of the DPF because the ash accumulated in the DPF cannot be removed by regeneration. It is reported that most of the DPFs operated with more ash than soot in the filter for more than three quarters of the time during its lifetime [1]. In order to mitigate this problem, the original engine manufacturers (OEM) tend to use an oversized DPF for the engine. However, it will increase the costs of the DPF and reduce the compactness of the engine aftertreatment system.

It is expected that the world's energy demand will double by 2050, which requires energy-efficient technologies to be readily available. With the increasing number of vehicles on our roads the demand for energy is increasing rapidly, and with this there is an associated increase in CO₂ emissions. Through the careful use of optimized lubricants it is possible to significantly reduce vehicle fuel consumption and hence CO₂. This paper evaluates the effects on fuel economy of high quality, low viscosity heavy-duty diesel engine type lubricants against mainstream type products for all elements of the vehicle driveline. Testing was performed on Shell's driveline test facility for the evaluation of fuel consumption effects due to engine, gearbox and axle oils and the variation with engine operating conditions.

A predictive model for estimating the fuel saving of “top tier” engine, axle and transmission lubricants (compared to “mainstream” lubricants), in a heavy duty truck, operating on a realistic driving cycle, is described. Simulations have been performed for different truck weights (10, 20 and 40 tonnes) and it was found that the model predicts percentage fuel economy benefits that are of a similar magnitude to those measured in well controlled field trials1. The model predicts the percentage fuel saving from the engine oil should decrease as the vehicle load increases (which is in agreement with field trial results). The percentage fuel saving from the axle and gearbox oils initially decreases with load and then stays more or less constant. This behaviour is due to the detailed way in which axle and gearbox efficiency varies with speed/load and lubricant type.

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine technology is now widely used due to its high fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions. However, particulate emissions pose one challenge to GDI technology, particularly in the presence of fuel injector deposits. In this paper, a 4-cylinder turbocharged GDI engine in the Chinese market was selected and operated at 2000rpm and 3bar BMEP condition for 55 hours to accumulate injector deposits. The engine spark timing, cylinder pressure, combustion duration, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), gaseous pollutants which include total hydro carbon (THC), NOx (NO and NO2) and carbon dioxide (CO), and particulate emissions were measured before and after the injector fouling test at eight different operating conditions. Test results indicated that mild injector fouling can result in an effect on engine combustion and emissions despite a small change in injector flow rate and pulse width.