Emissol (United States)

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) operation depends strongly on both heat and ammonia availability (stored or incoming). These requirements make high efficiency SCR challenging in lower temperature cycles where SCR is relatively cold, and Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) injection is largely absent due to deposit risks. Examples include low temperature cycles such as low-idling, stop-and-go or low-load cycles such as city driving or local delivery cycles.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">An Electrically Heated Mixer/ EHM™ is utilized to address these challenges in a single component. EHM simultaneously provides heat for rapid SCR heat-up during the cold phase or in other low-temperature operations, steady or transient. Second, its heating mechanism makes deposit risks nearly non-existent. Third, EHM enables DEF injection at 130 °C, markedly enhancing the low temperature SCR impact. It is shown that these capabilities collectively make EHM a promising pathway for meeting ultra-stringent NOx targets including California 2027 (0.02 gr/hp.hr). Via rapidly heating the SCR catalyst during cold-start, EHM enables substantially lowering the cold-phase NOx. For instance, it is shown this lowers the cold FTP and cold WHTC NOx emission by 2 – 2.5 fold and in Low-Load Cycle by 22-fold.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">EHM also allows DEF injection in low exhaust temperatures such as in 70 - 80 °C, for instance for rapidly filling the SCR catalyst with ammonia, if needed.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">Unlike adding other exhaust flow heating devices where an additional component is ultimately integrated in the aftertreatment architecture, EHM is a mixer, already present in emission control systems. These flexibilities, along with its lower cost and ease in fitting, make EHM an enabling pathway for Diesel emission control systems meeting very low NOx regulations.</div></div>

New regulations by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) demand a stringent 0.02 g/hp-hr tailpipe NOx limit by the year 2027, requiring Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalysts to provide high NOx conversions even at low (below 200°C) exhaust temperatures. This work describes utilizing an Electrically Heated Mixer System (EHM system) upstream of a Light-Off Selective Catalytic Reduction (LO-SCR) catalyst followed by a conventional aftertreatment (AT) system containing DOC, DPF, and SCR, enabling high NOx conversions meeting CARB’s NOx emission target. The AT catalysts were hydrothermally aged to Full Useful Life. Conventional unheated Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) was injected upstream of both the LO-SCR and primary downstream SCR. The EHM system allowed for DEF to be injected as low as 130°C upstream of the LO-SCR, whereas, in previous studies, unheated DEF was injected at 180°C or dosed at 130°C with heated DEF. The combination of unheated DEF, EHM system, LO-SCR, and downstream SCR enabled the needed increase in NOx efficiency in low exhaust temperatures, which was observed in drive cycles such as in cold-FTP, LLC, and World Harmonized Transient Cycle (WHTC). There were several-fold reductions in tailpipe NOx using this configuration compared to its baseline: 3.3-fold reduction in FTP, 22-fold in Low Load Cycle (LLC), 38-fold in Beverage Cycle, 8-fold in “Stay Hot” Cycle, and 10-fold in WHTC. Finally, it is shown that the EHM system can heat the exhaust gas, such as during a cold start, without needing additional heating hardware integrated into the system. These results were observed without performing changes in the engine base calibration.

The annual CLEERS conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and organized by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was held in Ann Arbor, MI, 18–20 September 2018. It brought together emission control scientists, engineers, and investigators from academia, national labs, and industry from across the U.S. and abroad, discussing the latest emission control technologies, trends, challenges, and regulations. Presentations, deliberations, exchanges, and panel discussions displayed a much-needed focus on the latest up-and-coming approaches to further advance NOx reduction, a major remaining challenge especially in diesel emission control, using further advances in selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx, passive NOx adsorbers, lean NOx traps, and SCR on particulate filter, amongst others. Discussions were further held on diesel oxidation catalysts, gasoline particulate filters, three-way catalysts, and hydrocarbon SCR, and also on the latest catalyst washcoat technologies, materials, and catalytic processes such as diffusion and kinetics, testing, and computer simulations.