Potential towards CI engines with lower NOx emissions through calibration optimization and low-carbon fuels
2022-01-0614
03/29/2022
- Content
- The use of electric vehicles will continue to increase as the technology advances, and governments adopt policies that favor their adoption. However, by some projections, the phase-out of the Internal Combustion Engines (ICEs) will occur later than 2050 (the target year to achieve Net Zero emissions), making imperative the continuous improvement of ICEs with strategies that can be -directly or with minor modifications- applied to existing vehicle platforms to improve efficiency and reduce GHG emissions to help achieve Paris climate targets. Low carbon fuels (LCF) as diesel substitutes for light and heavy duty vehicles are currently being considered as a promising alternative to reduce well-to-wheel (WTW) CO2 emissions by taking advantage of the carbon offset their synthesis pathway can promote, which could capture more CO2 than it releases into the atmosphere. Additionally, some low carbon fuels, like OMEx blends, have non-sooting properties that can significantly improve the NOx-soot tradeoff. In that sense, the current work studies the calibration optimization of a EU6D-TEMP light-duty engine of various LCFs with different renewable contents towards low NOx and soot targets. The potential of the different fuel calibrations is evaluated under a simplified Worldwide Harmonized Test Procedure (WLTP), which allows an overview of the homologation capabilities of the engine-out emissions as well as provides the base to perform cycle CO2 analysis. The results of the work indicate that the fuels with higher proportions of renewable content can have CO2 WTW emissions that are up to 95% lower than current diesel references, while at the same time being capable of engine-out soot emissions comparable to the current diesel baseline while significantly reducing NOx emissions in view of upcoming more stringent criteria pollutants regulations, as EU7.
- Citation
- Garcia, A., Monsalve-Serrano, J., Villalta, D., Guzmán Mendoza, M. et al., "Potential towards CI engines with lower NOx emissions through calibration optimization and low-carbon fuels," SAE Technical Paper 2022-01-0614, 2022, .