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A fuel reforming technology using a low temperature oxidation was developed to improve a NOx reduction performance of HC-SCR (Hydrocarbons Selective Catalytic Reduction) system, which does not require urea. The low-temperature oxidization of a diesel fuel in gas phase produces NOx reduction agents with high NOx reduction ability such as aldehydes and ketones. A pre-evaporation-premixing-type reformer was adopted in order to generate a uniform temperature field and a uniform fuel/air premixed gas, and to promote the low temperature oxidation efficiently. As a fundamental study, elementary reaction analysis for n-hexadecane/air premixtures was carried out to investigate the suitable reformer temperature and fuel/air equivalence ratio for generation of oxygenated hydrocarbons. It was found that the reforming efficiency was highest at the reforming temperature around 623 to 673K, and aldehydes and ketones were produced.

To reduce NOx and PM emissions in exhaust gas, after-treatment systems for low NOx emissions are being developed in combination with improvements of engine combustion. In recent years, the exhaust gas temperature has been dropping because of enhanced low-fuel consumption of the engine. Therefore, it is urgent to develop NOx reduction technologies that work at a low temperature under 200degC. Since NOx is reduced by reacting with ammonia supplied to the SCR catalyst, it is necessary to make the urea solution decompose into ammonia using the heat of the exhaust gas to supply sufficient ammonia to the SCR catalyst. However, both the decomposition reaction and hydrolysis reaction of the urea have insufficient exhaust heat, thus making it difficult for urea to decompose and hydrolyze to ammonia at a low temperature. To solve this problem, it focuses on forcibly decomposing the urea solution without depending on the exhaust gas temperature.

Achieving cleaner air throughout the world requires reducing diesel emissions. Therefore, after-treatment system without using a urea solution (DEF) called DPR-II has been developed in-house. It uses diesel fuel as a reducing agent (HC-SCR) to reduce NOx emission in diesel exhaust. The development of the fundamental technology could result in high NOx reduction performance at low to high temperature ranges, to meet the Japan 2016 emission regulation.

Urea-SCR(selective catalytic reduction) system is widely used as a technology of NOx(Nitrogen Oxides) reduction from diesel engine exhaust gases. Emission regulations have becoming stricter all over the world, and high NOx reduction performance is necessary to meet the emission regulations. To get higher NOx reduction performance of the Urea-SCR system, it is important to understand detailed chemical reaction mechanisms of Urea-SCR catalysts. In this study, we focused on elucidation of the reaction mechanism of the Urea-SCR catalyst by numerical simulation approach. The chemical reaction models with detail chemical reactions were built for both Fe-catalyst and Cu-catalyst. Both of the catalytic reaction models can predict difference of the catalytic reaction performance between the Fe-catalyst and the Cu-catalyst. In addition, rate-determining reaction step of the Cu-catalyst was successfully identified by the numerical simulation results.

The conventional NOx after-treatment system could not perform sufficient NOx removal since exhaust gas temperature falls down by low-fuel-consumption and waste heat recovery of a diesel engine. In order to realize a new after-treatment system with high NOx conversion rate at a low catalyst temperature, studies on adopting an ozone generator (NO oxidization promotion) and a urea reformer (ammonia addition) into the Urea SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system have been conducted.

Urea selective catalyst reduction (SCR) systems have a high NOx conversion rate because the ammonia formed by the hydrolyzing urea solution reacts with NOx efficiently as a reducing agent. Systems combining urea-SCR and a diesel particulate filter (DPF) have been adopted in heavy duty vehicles to meet the post new long term emissions regulations in Japan. This study examined the emissions reduction performance of these systems after 160,000 km. The emissions that were examined included both regulated emissions (NOx, PM, HC, and CO) and unregulated emissions. As a result, the cleanness of diesel emissions from a urea-SCR and DPF system was confirmed.

Diesel engine has a good fuel economy and high durability and used widely for power source such as heavy duty in the world. On the other hand, it is required to reduce NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) and PM (Particulate Matter) emissions further from diesel exhaust gases to preserve atmosphere. The urea-SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system is the most promising measures to reduce NOx emissions. DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) system is commercialized for PM reduction. However, in case that a vehicle has a slow speed as an urban area driving, a diesel exhaust temperature is too low to activate SCR catalyst for NOx reduction in diesel emissions. Moreover, the diesel exhaust temperature becomes lower as a future engine has less fuel consumption. The purpose of this study is reduction of NOx emission from a heavy-duty diesel engine using the Urea SCR system at the low temperature.

To reduce NOx emissions from a heavy-duty engine at low exhaust temperature conditions, the plasma-assisted SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) system was evaluated. The plasma-assisted SCR system is mainly composed of an ammonia gas supply system and a plasma reactor including a pellet type SCR catalyst. The preliminary test with simulated gases of diesel exhaust showed an improvement in the NOx reduction performance by means of the plasma-assisted SCR system, even below 150°C conditions. Furthermore, NOx reduction ratio was improved up to 77% at 110°C with increase in the catalyst volume. Also NOx emissions from a heavy-duty diesel engine over the transient test mode in Japan (JE05) were reduced by the plasma-assisted SCR system. However, unregulated emissions, e.g., aldehydes, were increased with the plasma environment. This paper reports the advantages and disadvantages of the plasma-assisted SCR system for a heavy-duty diesel engine.