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Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) based on urea water solution (UWS) has become a promising technology to reduce Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions for mobile applications. However, urea may undergo incomplete evaporations, resulting in formation of solid deposits on the inner surfaces including walls and mixers, limiting the transformation of urea to ammonia and chemical reaction between NOx and ammonia. Numerous design parameters of SCR system affect the formation of urea deposits [1] ; they are: exhaust condition, injector type, injector mounting angle, geometrical configurations of mixer, injection rate and etc. Research has been available in urea deposits, mixers, urea injection rates and others [2,4,5,6]. In this paper, focus is placed on improving mixing structure design from baseline design of EU IV to EU V. On-road tests indicate that deposits are highly likely to occur near locations where spray and exhaust gas interact most.

In order to satisfy China IV (equivalent to EU IV) emission regulations, an unconventional design concept was proposed with injector closely coupled with SCR can body. The benefit of this design is that the urea decomposition pipe was removed or drastically shortened, resulting in much smaller packaging space and lower cost of the whole system. However, the resulting short urea mixing distance generates concerns on low urea mixing efficiency and risks of urea deposits. In particular, airless urea injectors tend to generate incomplete evaporation of urea water solution, resulting in high risks of urea deposits. New aftertreatment mixing structures need to be developed to resolve these technical challenges.

To satisfy China IV emissions regulations, diesel truck manufacturers are striving to meet increasingly stringent Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx) reduction standards. Heavy duty truck manufacturers demand compact urea SCR NOx abatement designs, which integrate injectors, NOx sensors and necessary components on SCR can in order to save packaging space and system cost. To achieve this goal, aftertreatment systems need to be engineered to achieve high conversion efficiencies, low back pressure, no urea deposit risks and good mechanical durability. Initially, a baseline Euro IV Urea SCR system is evaluated because of concerns on severe deposit formation. Systematic enhancements of the design have been performed to enable it to meet multiple performance targets, including emission reduction efficiency and low urea deposit risks via improved reagent mixing, evaporation, and distribution. Acoustic performance has been improved from the baseline system as well.