Federal Test Procedure Cycle Research Articles

Experimental investigation of urea injection strategy for close-coupled SCR aftertreatment system to meet ultra-low NO emission regulation

• The tailpipe NOx and PM emission satisfy CARB ultra-low emission regulation under FTP cycle. • The effect of temperature and space velocity on NO x conversion is investigated. • A high NO x conversion efficiency is observed on ccSCR with air-assisted urea nozzle. • A zonal control strategy for dual urea injection is adopted to reduce tailpipe NOx emission. • The supplemental urea injection strategy is effective to reduce tailpipe NOx emission. Worldwide automotive emission regulations for heavy-duty diesel engines are increasingly stringent, especially for nitrogen oxide (NO x ) and particulate matter (PM). The development of high-efficiency aftertreatment technologies and the optimization of the urea injection strategies are key factors for the diesel engines to meet the future regulations. In this paper, the effects of temperature and space velocity on close coupled selective catalyst reduction (ccSCR) and SCR are investigated firstly. The highest NO x conversion efficiency of ccSCR and main SCR is observed at 350 °C, and an increase of space velocity leads to a more significant decrease on NO x conversion efficiency of ccSCR than that of SCR. Then three phases of urea injection state for both nozzles are determined according to the catalyst inlet temperature in the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) cycle. Urea injection strategy is optimized by urea injection ratio calibration and urea injection strategy updating based on the characteristic of three phases, as well as NH 3 sensor feedback. Finally, the composite tailpipe NO x emission under FTP cycle is reduced below 0.027 g/kW·h, satisfying California air resources board (CARB) ultra-low NO x emission regulation with a penalty of slight increase in CO 2 emissions. However, adopting a high reactivity gasoline can improve the efficiency while maintaining the low level of NO x emissions.

Optimal strategies of energy management integrated with transmission control for a hybrid electric vehicle using dynamic particle swarm optimization

In this study, dynamic particle swarm optimization was used to develop optimal strategies for two-variable energy management and gear-shifting in hybrid electric vehicles. To perform simulations, six mathematical subsystems, including a spark ignition engine, lithium battery module, traction motor, automatic manual transmission, longitudinal vehicle dynamics, and driver model were constructed. The control strategies for energy management and gear-shifting were modeled using a dynamic particle swarm optimization strategy with three inputs (i.e., battery state-of-charge, engine speed, and demanded torque) and two outputs (i.e., power-split ratio and gear number). The optimization process was divided into six sequential steps. Four different cases were selected for comparison. The results demonstrate that compared with the baseline case, the improvements in the equivalent fuel and energy consumed in the two-variable optimization case were 30.75% and 59.55%, respectively, during the standard European city driving cycle, and 20.54% and 46.95%, respectively, during the federal test procedure cycle. Consequently, the proposed optimization strategy brought superior performance when applied to hybrid energy management and transmission control. The results of a hardware-in-the-loop verification also confirm the effective performance of proposed the online control. In future work, tests using a real vehicle will be conducted.

Investigation of alternative metrics to quantify PM mass emissions from light duty vehicles

We evaluated the performance of six alternative particulate matter (PM) metrics relative to the regulatory gravimetric method during chassis dynamometer testing of five light-duty vehicles over the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) and Supplemental FTP (US06) cycles. Alternative metrics included three mass-based metrics including black carbon (BC), two suspended PM mass using integrated particle size distribution (IPSD) method, and three number/surface-based metrics including total particle number (PN), solid particle number (SPN), and particle active surface area (PS). The results showed PM emissions over the FTP cycle were dominated by solid particles on a mass basis (BC to PM ratio = 0.6 ± 0.5), whereas over the US06 cycle were dominated by semi-volatile particles (BC to PM ratio = 0.2 ± 0.2). Moderate to strong correlations were reported between the gravimetric method and the six alternative metrics for FTP and US06 cycles separately (R2 = 0.69–0.91), i.e. the best-fit lines were strongly dependent upon the cycle. On the other hand, the six alternative PM mass and number metrics exhibited moderate to strong correlations regardless of the test cycle (R2 = 0.66–0.98). We attribute the observed cycle dependency between alternative metrics and the gravimetric mass method to the greater gravimetric sensitivity to organic and semi-volatile PM than for most alternative metrics.

Impact of aggressive drive cycles on motor vehicle exhaust PM emissions

Aggressive drive cycles can cause substantial discrepancies between particulate matter (PM) measurement methods and increased emissions variability. Previous work demonstrated good agreement, within ~10%, between aerosol instruments and gravimetric determinations of PM mass emissions from gasoline direct injection engine (GDI) vehicles run over the Federal Test Procedure (FTP). In contrast, the present study reveals discrepancies of a factor of three or more for these vehicles run over the US06 portion of the supplemental FTP test. Two aspects of this are examined: 1) Changes in particle composition and morphology and 2) variability associated with vehicle history and test preparation. PM emissions during the US06 cycle are often accompanied by a strong nucleation mode. The organic to elemental carbon ratio increases relative to the FTP cycle. Also, the black carbon to elemental carbon ratio decreases, suggesting the formation of brown soot. The origins of these changes are not entirely clear, but are likely associated with the high engine exhaust temperatures during the US06 cycle. This also contributes to the higher test to test variability observed for the US06 versus FTP cycle. High temperatures can thermally desorb and pyrolyze various materials, including heavy hydrocarbons, ash, and inorganic salts deposited in the exhaust pipe, catalytic converter, and muffler that provide an additional PM source not present during FTP driving. The first day’s PM mass emissions are often substantially higher than on following days for the US06 cycle, but not the FTP. There is also a distinct drop in PM emissions between first and subsequent US06 cycles run in series.

Will Aerosol Hygroscopicity Change with Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel Fuels and Emission Control Technologies?

The use of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuels in compression ignition engines and aftertreatment technologies may affect vehicle exhaust emissions. In this study two 2012 light-duty vehicles equipped with direct injection diesel engines, diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particulate filter (DPF), and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) were tested on a chassis dynamometer. One vehicle was tested over the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) cycle on seven biodiesel and renewable diesel fuel blends. Both vehicles were exercised over double Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Highway fuel economy test (HWFET) cycles on ultralow sulfur diesel (ULSD) and a soy-based biodiesel blend to investigate the aerosol hygroscopicity during the regeneration of the DPF. Overall, the apparent hygroscopicity of emissions during nonregeneration events is consistently low (κ < 0.1) for all fuels over the FTP cycle. Aerosol emitted during filter regeneration is significantly more CCN active and hygroscopic; average κ values range from 0.242 to 0.439 and are as high as 0.843. Regardless of fuel, the current classification of "fresh" tailpipe emissions as nonhygroscopic remains true during nonregeneration operation. However, aftertreatment technologies such as DPF, will produce significantly more hygroscopic particles during regeneration. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a significant enhancement of hygroscopic materials emitted during DPF regeneration of on-road diesel vehicles. As such, the contribution of regeneration emissions from a growing fleet of diesel vehicles will be important.

Using a new inversion matrix for a fast-sizing spectrometer and a photo-acoustic instrument to determine suspended particulate mass over a transient cycle for light-duty vehicles

Integrated particle size distribution (IPSD) is a promising alternative method for estimating particulate matter (PM) emissions at low levels. However, a recent light-duty vehicle (LDV) emissions study showed that particle mass estimated using IPSD (MIPSD) with the TSI Engine Exhaust Particle Sizer (EEPS) Default Matrix was 56–75% lower than mass derived using the reference gravimetric method (MGrav) over the Federal Test Procedure (FTP). In this study, MIPSD calculated with a new inversion matrix, the Soot Matrix, is compared with MGrav and also photoacoustic soot mass (MSoot), to evaluate potential improvement of the IPSD method for estimating PM mass emissions from LDVs. In addition, an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS) was used to estimate mass emission rates attributed to larger particles (0.54–2.5 µm in aerodynamic diameter) that are not measured by the EEPS. Based on testing of 10 light-duty vehicles over the FTP cycle, the Soot Matrix significantly improved agreement between MIPSD and MGrav by increasing slopes of MIPSD/MGrav from 0.45–0.57 to 0.76–1.01 for gasoline direct injected (GDI) vehicles; however, for port-fuel injection (PFI) gasoline vehicles, a significant discrepancy still existed between MIPSD and MGrav, with MIPSD accounting for 34 ± 37% of MGrav. For all vehicles, strong correlations between MIPSD and MSoot were obtained, indicating the IPSD method is capable of capturing mass of soot particles. The discrepancy between the MIPSD and MGrav for PFI vehicles, which have relatively low PM emissions (0.22 to 1.83 mg/mile), could be partially due to limited size range of the EEPS by not capturing larger particles (0.54–2.5 µm) that accounts for ∼0.08 mg/mile of PM emission, uncertainties of particle effective density, and/or gas-phase adsorption onto filters that is not detected by in situ aerosol instrumentation.Copyright © 2016 American Association for Aerosol Research

Evaluation of a method for measuring vehicular PM with a composite filter and a real-time BC instrument

Abstract As part of the California Air Resources Board's effort to confirm the ability of the vehicular particulate matter (PM) reference method (RM) to measure PM emissions at sub-one milligram per mile (mg/mi), and to explore alternative methods, we evaluated a combination method (CM) that utilizes both gravimetric and real-time particle quantification. PM, collected on a single composite filter is apportioned to the three Federal Test Procedure (FTP) cycle phases using real-time equivalent black carbon (EBC) measurements, reducing the need to carry out separate gravimetric filter measurements for each of the test phases. Four light-duty gasoline vehicles, emitting PM at or below one mg/mi, were dynamometer tested repeatedly on the FTP cycle. PM was quantified by the RM and by two variants of the CM. One variant used photoacoustic spectroscopy to measure EBC (CM-MSS), and the other used an Aethalometer (CM-AE51). The CM was evaluated on repeatability, bias, and correlation with the RM. For the tested vehicles, the observed repeatability of the CM was superior to the RM regardless of the mode of EBC measurement or the test vehicle considered (σCM−MSS = 0.08 mg/mi, σCM−AE51 = 0.07 mg/mi, σRM ≈ 0.11 mg/mi). However, the CM was negatively biased by −0.08 mg/mi, versus the RM, in one of the test vehicles. We attribute the bias in this vehicle's data to organic carbon emissions that were not equivalently collected on the composite filter of the CM. When all data were combined, the correlation between the methods was good (R = 0.90 for CM-MSS vs. RM and R = 0.91 for CM-AE51 vs. RM).

Characterizing emissions and optical properties of particulate matter from PFI and GDI light-duty gasoline vehicles

Aerosol extinction coefficient (βext) and black carbon (BC) were measured from three light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGV), including two gasoline direct injection (spray-guided and wall-guided GDI, SG-GDI and WG-GDI, respectively) and a conventional port-fuel injection vehicle (PFI), over the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) and Supplemental FTP (US06) test cycles. Emission factors (EF) of BC and βext in addition to aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) were determined for different phases or segments of the drive cycles. WG-GDI showed the highest EFBC (13mg BC/kg fuel and 2.5mg BC/kg fuel) and EFext (0.1m2/kg fuel and 0.018m2/kg fuel) during both FTP and US06 cycles, respectively. EFBC and EFext for the GDI vehicles during cold-start (P1) of the FTP cycle were 7–60 times higher than the PFI vehicle. EFBC and EFext from GDI (PFI) vehicles were lower (higher) on the more aggressive US06 cycle compared to the FTP cycle. During the FTP cycle, a significantly lower SSA was observed for WG-GDI (0.2) while higher SSA values were observed for all vehicles during the US06 cycle (0.28–0.49).

Regulated and unregulated emissions from modern 2010 emissions-compliant heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established strict regulations for highway diesel engine exhaust emissions of particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) to aid in meeting the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The emission standards were phased in with stringent standards for 2007 model year (MY) heavy-duty engines (HDEs), and even more stringent NOX standards for 2010 and later model years. The Health Effects Institute, in cooperation with the Coordinating Research Council, funded by government and the private sector, designed and conducted a research program, the Advanced Collaborative Emission Study (ACES), with multiple objectives, including detailed characterization of the emissions from both 2007- and 2010-compliant engines. The results from emission testing of 2007-compliant engines have already been reported in a previous publication. This paper reports the emissions testing results for three heavy-duty 2010-compliant engines intended for on-highway use. These engines were equipped with an exhaust diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), high-efficiency catalyzed diesel particle filter (DPF), urea-based selective catalytic reduction catalyst (SCR), and ammonia slip catalyst (AMOX), and were fueled with ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel (~6.5 ppm sulfur). Average regulated and unregulated emissions of more than 780 chemical species were characterized in engine exhaust under transient engine operation using the Federal Test Procedure cycle and a 16-hr duty cycle representing a wide dynamic range of real-world engine operation. The 2010 engines’ regulated emissions of PM, NOX, nonmethane hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide were all well below the EPA 2010 emission standards. Moreover, the unregulated emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitroPAHs, hopanes and steranes, alcohols and organic acids, alkanes, carbonyls, dioxins and furans, inorganic ions, metals and elements, elemental carbon, and particle number were substantially (90 to >99%) lower than pre-2007-technology engine emissions, and also substantially (46 to >99%) lower than the 2007-technology engine emissions characterized in the previous study.Implications: Heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines equipped with DOC/DPF/SCR/AMOX and fueled with ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel produced lower emissions than the stringent 2010 emission standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They also resulted in significant reductions in a wide range of unregulated toxic emission compounds relative to older technology engines. The increased use of newer technology (2010+) diesel engines in the on-highway sector and the adaptation of such technology by other sectors such as nonroad, displacing older, higher emissions engines, will have a positive impact on ambient levels of PM, NOx, and volatile organic compounds, in addition to many other toxic compounds.

A decision-tree-based approach to smoke spike detection in a heavy-duty diesel engine

Smoke spikes occurring during transient engine operation have detrimental health effects and increase fuel consumption by requiring more frequent regeneration of the diesel particulate filter. This paper proposes a decision tree approach to real-time detection of smoke spikes for control and on-board diagnostics purposes. A contemporary, electronically controlled heavy-duty diesel engine was used to investigate the deficiencies of smoke control based on the fuel-to-oxygen-ratio limit. With the aid of transient and steady state data analysis and empirical as well as dimensional modeling, it was shown that the fuel-to-oxygen ratio was not estimated correctly during the turbocharger lag period. This inaccuracy was attributed to the large manifold pressure ratios and low exhaust gas recirculation flows recorded during the turbocharger lag period, which meant that engine control module correlations for the exhaust gas recirculation flow and the volumetric efficiency had to be extrapolated. The engine control module correlations were based on steady state data and it was shown that, unless the turbocharger efficiency is artificially reduced, the large manifold pressure ratios observed during the turbocharger lag period cannot be achieved at steady state. Additionally, the cylinder-to-cylinder variation during this period were shown to be sufficiently significant to make the average fuel-to-oxygen ratio a poor predictor of the transient smoke emissions. The steady state data also showed higher smoke emissions with higher exhaust gas recirculation fractions at constant fuel-to-oxygen-ratio levels. This suggests that, even if the fuel-to-oxygen ratios were to be estimated accurately for each cylinder, they would still be ineffective as smoke limiters. A decision tree trained on snap throttle data and pruned with engineering knowledge was able to use the inaccurate engine control module estimates of the fuel-to-oxygen ratio together with information on the engine control module estimate of the exhaust gas recirculation fraction, the engine speed, and the manifold pressure ratio to predict 94% of all spikes occurring over the Federal Test Procedure cycle. The advantages of this non-parametric approach over other commonly used parametric empirical methods such as regression were described. An application of accurate smoke spike detection in which the injection pressure is increased at points with a high opacity to reduce the cumulative particulate matter emissions substantially with a minimum increase in the cumulative nitrogrn oxide emissions was illustrated with dimensional and empirical modeling.

Size Distribution of Trace Organic Species Emitted from Light-Duty Gasoline Vehicles

Size distributions for particulate hopanes+steranes and nonvolatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) emitted from five classes of light-duty gasoline-powered vehicles were measured using the federal test procedure (FTP), unified cycle (UC), and correction cycle (CC) driving cycles. 17alpha(H)-21beta(H)-29-norhopane, 17alpha(H)-21beta(H)-hopane, alpha beta beta-20R-stigmastane, and alpha beta beta-20S-stigmastane were highly correlated and behaved consistently across sampling methods. Coronene and benzo[ghi]perylene were the most ubiquitous heavy PAHs detected in the vehicle exhaust. The emission rates of hopanes, steranes, and PAHs contained in particles with aerodynamic diameters of less than 1.8 ,m varied by 2 orders of magnitude between the lowest- and highest-emitting vehicle classes. Hopane+sterane size distributions emitted from vehicles without an operating catalyst (including "cold-start" emissions from catalyst-equipped vehicles) were bimodal with one mode between 0.10 and 0.18 microm and the second mode >0.32 microm particle diameter. Hopane+sterane emissions released from vehicles with a catalyst at operating temperature had a single mode between 0.1 and 0.18 microm diameter. Hopane+sterane emissions from visibly smoking vehicles had a single mode between 0.18 and 0.32 microm diameter. Heavy PAH size distributions for all vehicle classes consistently had a single mode between 0.10 and 0.18 microm particle diameter (0.1-0.32 microm diameter for smoking vehicles). The geometric standard deviations for PAH size distributions were generally smaller than the corresponding hopane+sterane distributions. These trends suggest that hopanes+steranes and heavy PAHs act as tracers for separate processes of particulate organic carbon formation. PAH and hopane+sterane emissions shifted to smaller sizes during the more aggressive UC and CC driving cycles relative to the FTP. The fraction of PAH and hopane+sterane emissions in the ultrafine (Dp < 0.1 microm) range more than doubled during "warm-start" UC and CC cycles vs the FTP cycle. The enhancement of ultrafine PAHs during "cold-start" UC driving cycles was less pronounced.

Modeling Vehicle Emissions in Hot-Stabilized Conditions Using a Simultaneous Equations Model

The purpose of this study is to incorporate the correlation between different types of emissions into microscale vehicle emissions models. Simultaneous equations models were calibrated for two vehicle categories classified in a National Cooperative Highway Research Program project. One represents normal emitting vehicles, while the other represents high emitting vehicles. Among various vehicle operation conditions, only those represented by Bag 2 of the Federal Test Procedure cycle were considered in this study. The developed models were evaluated based on the criteria of root mean square errors and correlation coefficients between the estimated and measured emissions. The results indicate that the correlation between emissions of CO and HC can be significantly identified; thus, these two emission types should be included in the simultaneous equations models. In addition, the results indicate that simultaneous equations models can achieve better and reliable emissions estimation results compared with other vehicle emissions models, which implies that it is worthwhile to apply simultaneous equations models to other operation conditions.

Generation and characterization of four dilutions of diesel engine exhaust for a subchronic inhalation study.

Exposure atmospheres for a rodent inhalation toxicology study were generated from the exhaust of a 2000 Cummins ISB 5.9L diesel engine coupled to a dynamometer and operated on a slightly modified heavy-duty Federal Test Procedure cycle. Exposures were conducted to one clean air control and four diesel exhaust levels maintained at four different dilution rates (300:1, 100:1, 30:1, 10:1) that yielded particulate mass concentrations of 30, 100, 300, and 1000 microg/m3. Exposures at the four dilutions were characterized for particle mass, particle size distribution (reported elsewhere), detailed chemical speciation of gaseous, semivolatile, and particle-phase inorganic and organic compounds. Target analytes included metals, inorganic ions and gases, organic and elemental carbon, alkanes, alkenes, aromatic and aliphatic acids, aromatic hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), oxygenated PAH, nitrogenated PAH, isoprenoids, carbonyls, methoxyphenols, sugar derivatives, and sterols. The majority of the mass of material in the exposure atmospheres was gaseous nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide, with lesser amounts of volatile organics and particle mass (PM) composed of carbon (approximately 90% of PM) and ions (approximately 10% of PM). Measured particle organic species accounted for about 10% of total organic particle mass and were mostly alkanes and aliphatic acids. Several of the components in the exposure atmosphere scaled in concentration with dilution but did not scale precisely with the dilution rate because of background from the rodents and scrubbed dilution air, interaction of animal derived emissions with diesel exhaust components, and day-to-day variability in the output of the engine. Rodent-derived ammonia reacted with exhaust to form secondary inorganic particles (at different rates dependent on dilution), and rodent respiration accounted for volatile organics (especially carbonyls and acids) in the same range as the diesel exhaust at the lowest exhaust exposure concentrations. Day-to-day variability in the engine output was implicated partially for differences of several components, including some of the particle bound organics. Though these observations have likely occurred in nearly all inhalation exposure atmospheres that contain complex mixtures of material, the speciations conducted here illustrate many of them for the first time.

Estimates of the emission rates of ammonia from light-duty vehicles using standard chassis dynamometer test cycles

Emissions rates of ammonia (NH 3) are reported for a fleet of 39 in-use light-duty gasoline-fueled vehicles. The fleet consisted of both light-duty passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks with various levels of emission control technologies, ranging from non-catalyst vehicles to those that were certified at the ULEV standard for California. NH 3 measurements were performed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and the federal test procedure (FTP) driving cycle. The FTP NH 3 emission rate for this fleet of vehicles averaged 54 mg mi −1 with a range from <4 to 177 mg mi −1. For this fleet of vehicles, NH 3 emissions did not decline as significantly as the regulated pollutants with improvements in emission control technology. A subset of 5 vehicles was tested over the US06, the New York City Cycle (NYCC), and a high-speed freeway cycle for comparison with the FTP cycle. NH 3 emissions showed a strong cycle dependence, with increased emissions under more aggressive driving conditions. These results show that NH 3 emissions formed during more aggressive driving conditions should be considered in the development of NH 3 emission factors. The onset of NH 3 emissions typically occurred after catalyst light-off, near when the catalyst reached its equilibrium temperature. Initial studies showed that NH 3 emissions increased as the sulfur content in the fuel was decreased.

Ambient temperature light-off for automobile emission control

The time taken for an exhaust emission-control catalyst to reach its operating temperature for hydrocarbon oxidation is a major barrier to achieving ultra-low emissions from vehicles. A new approach for achieving rapid catalyst light-off from a vehicle cold-start has been devised and demonstrated on an automobile. An important component in the system is a Pd–Pt-based catalyst which, under net lean conditions in an exhaust stream containing high levels of CO, is active at ambient temperature for the highly exothermic CO oxidation reaction. The Pd–Pt catalyst has positive-order kinetics with respect to CO for the CO oxidation reaction; hence, increasing the level of CO in the feed leads to increasing reaction rates and a faster temperature rise for the catalyst. In practice, this means that enriching the air to fuel mixture supplied to the engine at cold-start (with a secondary air source to provide at least the required amount of oxygen for complete CO conversion in the exhaust) enables the catalyst to reach operating temperature within seconds of starting the engine. In the present work, this ambient temperature catalyst is combined with an upstream water trap (zeolite 5 Å) and hydrocarbon trap (zeolites H-ZSM-5 or H-Beta). The traps delay the exposure of the catalyst to these potentially inhibiting species until it has reached a temperature at which it can effectively combust hydrocarbons. When tested fresh, this system demonstrated high levels of hydrocarbon conversion throughout the start-up phase of a Federal Test Procedure cycle.

Diesel particle mass concentration by optical techniques

Particle mass concentrations in the exhaust streams of a variety of Diesel engines have been measured using both a visible wavelength opacity meter and an IR photoacoustic device. We present real-time recordings of the emissions from vehicles operated over the Federal Test Procedure driving cycle. Steady-state mass concentrations of a few mg x m(-3) can be measured by opacity and as low as 0.4 mg x m(-3) by the photoacoustic technique, but the uncertainty is approximately 15% in both cases. An uncertainty of approximately 20% is found in the estimation of total mass emission rates over the Federal Test Procedure cycle by integration of the optical signals.