Linxiao Yu

Real-world operation conditions and on-road emissions of Beijing diesel buses measured by using portable emission measurement system and electric low-pressure impactor.

On-road measurement is an effective method to investigate real-world emissions generated from vehicles and estimate the difference between engine certification cycles and real-world operating conditions. This study presents the results of on-road measurements collected from urban buses which propelled by diesel engine in Beijing city. Two widely used Euro III emission level buses and two Euro IV emission level buses were chosen to perform on-road emission measurements using portable emission measurement system (PEMS) for gaseous pollutant and Electric Low Pressure Impactor (ELPI) for particulate matter (PM) number emissions. The results indicate that considerable discrepancies of engine operating conditions between real-world driving cycles and engine certification cycles have been observed. Under real-world operating conditions, carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions can easily meet their respective regulations limits, while brake specification nitrogen oxide (bsNO(x)) emissions present a significant deviation from its corresponding limit. Compared with standard limits, the real-world bsNO(x) emission of the two Euro III emission level buses approximately increased by 60% and 120% respectively, and bsNO(x) of two Euro IV buses nearly twice standard limits because Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system not active under low exhaust temperature. Particle mass were estimated via particle size distribution with the assumption that particle density and diameter is liner. The results demonstrate that nanometer size particulate matter make significant contribution to total particle number but play a minor role to total particle mass. It is suggested that specific certified cycle should be developed to regulate bus engines emissions on the test bench or use PEMS to control the bus emissions under real-world operating conditions.

Carbonyl compound emissions from passenger cars fueled with methanol/gasoline blends

Carbonyl compound emissions from two passenger cars fueled with different methanol/gasoline blends (M15 and M100) and operated with three-way catalytic converters (TWC) were investigated. The tests were performed on a chassis dynamometer with constant volume sampling over the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). Carbonyls were trapped on dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) cartridges. The hydrazones formed on the cartridge were analyzed by means of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and detected with a variable wavelength detector. The results show that when cars were fueled with methanol/gasoline blends, carbon monoxide (CO) and total hydrocarbon (THC) emissions decreased by 9-21% and 1-55% respectively, while nitrogen oxide (NO(x)) emissions increased by 175-233%. Compared with gasoline vehicles, formaldehyde emissions with M15 and M100 were two and four times higher respectively, and total carbonyls with M15 and M100 increased by 3% and 104% respectively. With the use of the new TWC, both regulated gas pollutants and formaldehyde decreased. The new TWC caused a decrease of 5% and 31% in formaldehyde concentration for M15 and M100, respectively. Specific reactivity (SR) with the new TWC was reduced from 5.92 to 5.72 for M15 and from 7.00 to 6.93 for M100, indicating that M15 and M100 with the new TWC were friendlier to the environment.

NOx emissions from Euro IV busses with SCR systems associated with urban, suburban and freeway driving patterns

NOx and particulate matter (PM) emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDVs) have become the most important sources of pollutants affecting urban air quality in China. In recent years, a series of emission control strategies and diesel engine polices have been introduced that require advanced emission control technology. China and Europe mostly have used Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) with urea to meet the Euro IV diesel engine emission standard. In this study, two Euro IV busses with SCR were tested by using potable emission measurement system (PEMS) to assess NOx emissions associated with urban, suburban and freeway driving patterns. The results indicated that with the SCR system, the urea injection time for the entire driving period increased with higher vehicle speed. For freeway driving, the urea injection time covered 71%-83% of the driving period; the NOx emission factors from freeway driving were lower than those associated with urban and suburban driving. Unfortunately, the NOx emission factors were 2.6-2.8-, 2.3-2.7- and 2.2-2.3-fold higher than the Euro IV standard limits for urban, suburban and freeway driving, respectively; NOx emission factors (in g/km and g/(kW·h)) from the original vehicles (without SCR) were higher than their corresponding vehicles with SCR for suburban and freeway driving. Compared with the IVE model results, the measured NOx emission factors were 1.60-1.16-, 1.77-1.27-, 2.49-2.44-fold higher than the NOx predicted by the IVE model for urban and suburban driving, respectively. Thus, an adjustment of emission factors is needed to improve the estimation of Euro IV vehicle emissions in China.

Impacts of continuously regenerating trap and particle oxidation catalyst on the NO2 and particulate matter emissions emitted from diesel engine.

Two continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter (CRDPF) with different configurations and one particles oxidation catalyst (POC) were employed to perform experiments in a controlled laboratory setting to evaluate their effects on NO2, smoke and particle number emissions. The results showed that the application of the after-treatments increased the emission ratios of NO2/NOx significantly. The results of smoke emissions and particle number (PN) emissions indicated that both CRDPFs had sufficient capacity to remove more than 90% of total particulate matter (PM) and more than 97% of solid particles. However, the POC was able to remove the organic components of total PM, and only partially to remove the carbonaceous particles with size less than 30 nm. The negligible effects of POC on larger particles were observed due to its honeycomb structure leads to an inadequate residence time to oxidize the solid particles or trap them. The particles removal efficiencies of CRDPFs had high degree of correlations with the emission ratio of NO2/NOx. The PN emission results from two CRDPFs indicated that more NO2 generating in diesel oxidation catalyst section could obtain the higher removal efficiency of solid particles. However this also increased the risk of NO2 exposure in atmosphere.

Emission characteristics of a heavy-duty diesel engine at simulated high altitudes

In order to evaluate the effects of altitude on the pollutant emissions of a diesel engine, an experimental research was carried out using an engine test bench with an altitude simulation system. The emissions of HC, CO, NOx, smoke, and particle number of a heavy-duty diesel engine were measured under steady state operating conditions at sea level and simulated altitudes of 1000 and 2000 m. The experimental results indicate that the high altitude increases the emissions of HC, CO and smoke of the diesel engine, the average increasing rates of which are 30%, 35% and 34% with addition of altitude of 1000 m, respectively. The effect of high altitudes on the NOx emission varies with the engine types and working conditions. At 1000 m the particles number emissions are 1.6 to 4.2 times the levels at the low altitude. The pattern of the particle size distributions at 1000 m is similar with that at sea-level, which is the mono-modal lognormal distribution with geometric mean diameter around 0.1 μm. However, the peak number concentrations of particles are bigger and the exhausted particles are smaller at the high altitude.

Effects of continuously regenerating diesel particulate filters on regulated emissions and number-size distribution of particles emitted from a diesel engine.

The effects of continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter (CRDPF) systems on regulated gaseous emissions, and number-size distribution and mass of particles emanated from a diesel engine have been investigated in this study. Two CRDPF units (CRDPF-1 and CRDPF-2) with different specifications were separately retrofitted to the engine running with European steady-state cycle (ESC). An electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI) was used for particle number-size distribution measurement and mass estimation. The conversion/reduction rate (R(CR)) of hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) across CRDPF-1 was 83% and 96.3%, respectively. Similarly, the R(CR) of HC and CO and across CRDPF-2 was 91.8% and 99.1%, respectively. The number concentration of particles and their concentration peaks; nuclei mode, accumulation mode and total particles; and particle mass were highly reduced with the CRDPF units. The nuclei mode particles at downstream of CRDPF-1 and CRDPF-2 decreased by 99.9% to 100% and 97.8% to 99.8% respectively; and the particle mass reduced by 73% to 92.2% and 35.3% to 72.4%, respectively, depending on the engine conditions. In addition, nuclei mode particles increased with the increasing of engine speed due to the heterogeneous nucleation initiated by the higher exhaust temperature, while accumulation mode particles were higher at higher loads due to the decrease in the air-to-fuel ratio (A/F) at higher loads.

Experimental study on the nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter emissions from diesel engine retrofitted with particulate oxidation catalyst.

A particulate oxidation catalyst (POC) was employed to perform experiments on the engine test bench to evaluate the effects on the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM) emissions from diesel engine. The engine exhaust was sampled from both upstream and downstream of the POC. The results showed that the POC increased the ratios of NO2/NOx significantly in the middle and high loads, the ratio of NO2/nitrogen oxides (NOx) increased 4.5 times on average under all experiment modes with the POC. An engine exhaust particle sizer (EEPS) was used to study the particle number-weighted size distributions and the abnormal particle emissions with the POC. The results indicated that the average reduction rate of particle number (PN) was 61% in the operating range of the diesel engine. At the engine speed of 1,400 r/min, the reduction rates of PN tended to decrease with the larger particle size. In the long time run under the steady mode (520 Nm, 1,200 r/min), abnormal particle emissions after the POC happened seven times in the first hour, and the average PN concentration of these abnormal emission peaks was much higher than that in normal state. The particle emissions of peaks 1-5 equaled the particles emitted downstream of the POC in normal state for 1.9h in number concentration, and for 3.6h in mass concentration. The PN concentrations tended to increase over time in 5h under the steady engine mode and the increase of the PN in the size range of 6.04-14.3 nm was more evident.

Experimental Investigation on the Unsteady Performance of Automotive Turbocharger Turbine

This paper presents some development of the turbocharger turbine unsteady measurement under pulsating conditions. On the basis of the indirect turbine power measuring principle by using a radial compressor to load turbine, a new turbine test rig is set up, which uses an “auxiliary” turbocharger instead of the intercooler to achieve a close-cycle loading. The experimental results show that it can enlarge the load range and achieve a benefit of compactness. Some key instantaneous data measurements including speed and inlet temperature are discussed and a new method of phase shift is introduced. Using the newly developed test rig, an automotive turbocharger turbine is measured under two pulse frequencies of 40 and 60 Hz. The instantaneous mass flow and efficiency maps are obtained with the instantaneous data measurement, and the obvious hysteresis surrounding the steady curve was also found.