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Stringent global emissions legislations demand effective NOx reduction strategies for both the engine as well as the aftertreatment. Diesel applications have previously applied Lean NOx Catalysts (LNCs) [1, 2], but their reduction efficiency and longevity have been far less than that of the competing ammonia-based SCR systems, such as urea [3]. A catalyst has been developed to significantly reduce NOx emissions, approaching 60% with ULSD and exceeding 95% with E85. Both thermal and sulfur aging are applied, as well as on-engine aging, illustrating resilient performance to accommodate necessary life requirements. A robust system is developed to introduce both ULSD from the vehicle's tank as well as E85 (up to 85% ethanol with the balance being gasoline) from a moderately sized supplemental tank, enabling extended mileage service intervals to replenish the reductant, as compared with urea, particularly when coupled with an engine-out based NOx reduction technology, such as EGR.

Stringent global emissions legislation demands effective NOx reduction strategies, particularly for the aftertreatment, and current typical liquid urea SCR systems achieve efficiencies greater than 90% [1]. However, with such high-performing systems comes the trade-off of requiring a tank of reductant (urea water solution) to be filled regularly, usually as soon as the fuel fillings or as far as oil changes. Advantages of solid reductants, particularly ammonium carbamate, include greater ammonia densities, enabling the reductant refill interval to be extended several multiples versus a given reductant volume of urea, or diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) [2]. An additional advantage is direct gaseous ammonia dosing, enabling reductant injection at lower exhaust temperatures to widen its operational coverage achieving greater emissions reduction potential [3], as well as eliminating deposits, reducing mixing lengths, and avoiding freeze/thaw risks and investments.

EPA 2015 Tier IV emission requirements pose significant challenges to large diesel engine after treatment system development with respect to reducing exhaust emissions including HC, CO, NOx and Particulate Matter (PM). For a typical locomotive, marine or stationary generator engine with 8 to 20 cylinders and 2500 to 4500 BHP, the PM reduction target could be over 90% and NOx reduction target over 75% for a wide range of running conditions. Generally, HC, CO and PM reductions can be achieved by combining DOC, cDPF and active regeneration systems. NOx reduction can be achieved by injecting urea as an active reagent into the exhaust stream to allow NOx to react with ammonia per SCR catalysts, as the mainstream approach for on-highway truck applications.

Diesel Particulate Filters have been successfully applied for several years to reduce Particulate Matter (PM) emissions from on-highway applications, and similar products are now also applied in off-highway markets and retrofit solutions. As soot accumulates on the filter, backpressure increases, and eventually exhaust temperatures are elevated to burn off the soot, actively or passively. Unfortunately, in many real-world instances, some duty cycles never achieve necessary temperatures, and the ability of the engine and/or catalyst to elevate exhaust temperatures can be problematic, resulting in overloaded filters that have become clogged, necessitating service attention. An autonomous heat source is developed to eliminate such risks, applying an ignition-based combustor that leverages the current diesel fuel supply, providing necessary temperatures when needed, regardless of engine operating conditions.

Diesel burners recently have been used in Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) regeneration process, in which the exhaust gas temperature is raised through the combustion process to burn off the soot particles. The feasibility of such process using the burner in large diesel applications is investigated along with a mixer and DPF. For such applications, only partial flow of the exhaust stream is fed into the burner and the resulting hot flow from combustion process is then mixed with the rest of the main stream. The amount of flow into the burner plays a vital role in overall system performance as it determines the amount of hot gas needed for Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) light-off (to facilitate DPF regeneration) and also oxygen amount needed for secondary combustion. A passive valve plate design is proposed for such flow split applications for the burner.

In order to satisfy tightening global emissions regulations, diesel truck manufacturers are striving to meet increasingly stringent Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) reduction standards. The majority of heavy duty diesel trucks have integrated urea SCR NOx abatement strategies. To this end, aftertreatment systems need to be properly engineered to achieve high conversion efficiencies. A EuroV intent urea SCR system is evaluated and failed to meet NOx conversion targets with severe urea deposit formation. Systematic enhancements of the design have been performed to enable it to meet targets, including emission reduction efficiency via improved reagent mixing, evaporation, distribution, back pressure, and removing of urea deposits. Multiple urea mixers, injector mounting positions and various system layouts are developed and evaluated, including both CFD analysis and full scale laboratory tests.

With increasing applications of urea SCR for NOx emission reduction, improving the system performance and durability has become a high priority. A typical urea SCR system includes a urea injector, injector housing, mixer, and appropriate pipe configurations to allow continuous urea injection into the exhaust stream and evaporation of urea solution into gaseous products. Continuous operation at various conditions with high NOx reduction is possible, but one problem that threatens the life and performance of these systems is urea deposit. When urea or its byproducts become deposited on the inner surfaces of the system including walls, mixers, injector housings and substrates it can create concerns of backpressure and material deteriorations. In addition, deposits as a waste of reagents can negatively affect engine operation, emissions performance and DEF economy. Urea deposit behavior is explored in terms of heat transfer, pipe geometry, injector layout and mixing mechanisms.

The presented work evaluates several mixer designs being considered for use in large Diesel exhaust aftertreatment systems. The mixers are placed upstream of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) in the exhaust system, where a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is injected. DOC exothermic behaviour resulting from each mixer at different operating conditions is evaluated. A gas flow bench equipped with a XY-Table measurement system is used to determine gas velocity, temperature, and hydrocarbon species uniformity, as well as, pressure drop. Experimental mixer data obtained from a flow bench and an engine dynamometer are compared and discussed. The experimental methodology used in this study can be used to evaluate mixers via comprehensive testing.

This paper describes the joint development by Tenneco and Pi Shurlok of a complete diesel engine aftertreatment system for controlling particulate matter emissions. The system consists of a DOC, DPF, sensors, controller and an exhaust fuel injection system to allow active DPF regeneration. The mechanical components were designed for flow uniformity, low backpressure and component durability. The overall package is intended as a complete PM control system solution for OEMs, which does not require any significant additions to the OEM's engine control strategies and minimizes integration complexity. Thus, to make it easier to adapt to different engine platforms, ranging from small off-road vehicle engines to large locomotive engines, model-based control algorithms were developed in preference to map-based controls.

Diesel burners introduce combustion of diesel fuel to raise exhaust gas temperature to Diesel Oxidization Catalyst (DOC) light-off or Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) regeneration conditions, thereby eliminating the need of engine measures such as post-injections. Such diesel combustion requirement nevertheless poses challenges to burner development especially in combustion control and risk mitigation of DPF material failure. In particular, burner design must satisfy good soot distribution and heat distribution at DPF front face after meeting minimum requirements of ignition, heat release, and backpressure. In burner development, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models have been developed based on commercial codes for burner thermal and flow management with capability of predicting comprehensive physical and chemical phenomena including turbulence induced mixing, fuel injection, fuel droplet transport, diesel combustion, radiation, conjugate heat transfer and etc.

2010 and future EPA regulations introduce stringent Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) reduction targets for diesel engines. Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) of NOx by Urea over catalyst has become one of the main solutions to achieve these aggressive reductions. As such, urea solution is injected into the exhaust gas, evaporated and decomposed to ammonia via mixing with the hot exhaust gas before passing through an SCR catalyst. Urea mixers, in this regard, are crucial to ensure successful evaporation and mixing since its liquid state poses significant barriers, especially at low temperature conditions that incur undesired deposits. Intensive efforts have been taken toward developing such urea mixers, and multiple criteria have been derived for them, mainly including NOx reduction efficiency and uniformity. In addition, mixers must also satisfy other requirements such as low pressure drop penalty, mechanical strength, material integrity, low cost, and manufacturability.

An active diesel particulate filter (DPF) regeneration system is evaluated, which applies secondary fuel injection (SFI) directly within the exhaust system upstream of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC). Diesel fuel is oxidized in the presence of a proprietary catalyst system, increasing exhaust gas temperatures in an efficient and controlled manner, even during low engine-out gas temperatures. The exotherms produced by secondary fuel injection (SFI) have been evaluated using two different DOC volumes and platinum catalyst loadings. DOC light-off temperatures were measured using SFI under steady-state conditions on an engine dynamometer. A ΔT method was used for the light-off temperature measurements – i.e., the minimum DOC inlet gas temperature at which the exothermic reaction increases the outlet gas temperature 20°C or greater than the inlet temperature.

New emissions standards for oxides of nitrogen (NOx) in on-road diesel vehicles are effective in 2010, and a common approach applies urea selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Urea is injected into the exhaust and decomposes to form ammonia, which chemically reacts with NOx as it passes through an SCR catalyst. Ammonia is corrosive and negatively affects typical stainless steels used in exhaust applications, but these corrosive impacts have not yet been quantified in an exhaust system. Two unique corrosion tests are performed on a number of various stainless steel samples, illustrating such performance concerns with 409, while offering alternatives with much better performance, including cost-effective options. The method applied is described, yielding performance criteria through appearance, weight loss, and corrosion pit depth.

Monolithic emission control devices typically use a support mat material to provide mechanical support, mechanical isolation, and thermal insulation for ceramic monoliths. This material is similar to a felt, but made from ceramic fibers. Non-intumescent support mat materials contain only ceramic fibers and binder compounds, while intumescent support mats also contain vermiculite; a material that expands with the application of heat. The durability of the support mat is critical to the durability of the overall emission control components. In addition to many component validation methods that evaluate the durability of the entire system methods to evaluate the response and predict the durability of the support mat itself help provide important design information. This paper summarizes challenges and artifacts in support mat testing.

As Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) NOx abatement systems gain commercial acceptance and popularity, the need for efficiency predictive capabilities increases. To this end, a flow bench was developed capable of varying steady state inputs (temperature, flow rate and NOx concentration). The efficiencies of various SCR systems was measured and compared. This concept of a steady state flow bench approach allows for an efficient and cost effective means to evaluate comparable system designs.

A unique validation method is proposed for mount designs of Lean NOx Traps (LNT's), in which characteristic curves of failure points as functions of thermal cycles and vibration amplitudes are generated. LNT's are one of the several new types of emissions control devices applied to Diesel Exhaust Systems, and they reduce the amount of NOx through chemical adsorption. Desulfation must occur nearly every hour, which involves raising the inlet gas temperature of the LNT to around 700°C to “burn off” sulfur from the catalyst, which otherwise would decrease its catalytic activity. This temperature is held for several minutes, and its cyclic occurrence has a negative effect on the long-term performance of the support mat, a major component of its mount design. As substrate temperatures increase, shell temperatures do as well, and thermal growth differences between the ceramic substrate and metallic shell cause the gap between them, which is filled by the support mat, to increase.

Diesel Particulate Filter Systems offer excellent opportunities to reduce the emitted soot through their filtration potential, but periodic burning of the collected soot is necessary. This is referred to as Regeneration, which occurs every few hundred miles and requires gas temperatures to increase to nearly 600°C. As the soot burns, it creates an exothermic response, increasing DPF exit temperatures potentially to 800°C or higher. Such extremes create thermal management concerns as the hot gases exit the tailpipe, particularly during low speeds or idling conditions. Methods to manage such thermal concerns are presented in this study, evaluating passive and active options.

In order to scientifically approach the design of mounting systems for substrates in emissions control systems, it is essential to characterize the behavior of the involved materials, particularly the support mat. Manufacturing processes and various in-field conditions impact the long term performance of the support mat, and life-long emissions performance is critically dependent on its ability to retain the substrate throughout the intended life. Therefore, to ensure product robustness, the behavior during operation of all available support mats must be appropriately characterized to determine the technical layout in specific applications. This paper addresses three common characterization tests, developed internally and externally. Additionally, equipment improvements to minimize artifacts in test results as well as the development of a new mat test for manufacturing methods are addressed.

Non-round substrates are often applied in exhaust applications with limited packaging space, including commercial vehicles, and the shape of their metallic shells are often designed to be similar, but enlarged to accommodate the layer of support mat. This gap is often planned to be constant around its perimeter, but measured data indicates this rarely occurs. This study evaluates a particular oval converter mount design and applies a unique method to couple finite-element modeling with support mat response characteristics to predict non-round shell shapes, planning for uneven gap distributions. This method allows for increased awareness of acceptable mount designs, as well as improved manufacturing and durability performance, which becomes even more important within commercial vehicle design applications, subject to larger substrate sizes, increased backpressures, and extended mileage requirements.

An active Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) regeneration technology has been developed in which diesel fuel is oxidized in the presence of a proprietary catalyst system, regenerating the DPF in an efficient and controlled manner. Several important benefits for such a system include light off at low exhaust temperatures, which allows active regeneration over a wide range of vehicle uses, the ability to heat the DPF uniformly without hot spots or uncontrolled temperature extremes, lower backpressures and fuel penalty costs and a control strategy that could be substantially independent of the engine management system. The Xonon Fuel Combustor (XFC™) provides for active regeneration of the DPF at various vehicle loads and speeds. System attributes include activation at engine exhaust temperatures as low as 220°C and an outlet temperature that can be efficiently controlled over a wide range, as high as 700°C.