On-Board Sensor-Based NO x Emissions from Heavy-Duty Diesel Vehicles.

Real-world nitrogen oxides (NO x) emissions were estimated using on-board sensor readings from 72 heavy-duty diesel vehicles (HDDVs) equipped with a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system in California. The results showed that there were large differences between in-use and certification NO x emissions, with 12 HDDVs emitting more than three times the standard during hot-running and idling operations in the real world. The overall NO x conversion efficiencies of the SCR system on many vehicles were well below the 90% threshold that is expected for an efficient SCR system, even when the SCR system was above the optimum operating temperature threshold of 250 °C. This could potentially be associated with SCR catalyst deterioration on some engines. The Not-to-Exceed (NTE) requirements currently used by the heavy-duty in-use compliance program were evaluated using on-board NO x sensor data. Valid NTE events covered only 4.2-16.4% of the engine operation and 6.6-34.6% of the estimated NO x emissions. This work shows that low cost on-board NO x sensors are a convenient tool to monitor in-use NO x emissions in real-time, evaluate the SCR system performance, and identify vehicle operating modes with high NO x emissions. This information can inform certification and compliance programs to ensure low in-use NO x emissions.

Real-world exhaust temperature and engine load distributions of on-road heavy-duty diesel vehicles in various vocations.

Real-world vehicle and engine activity data were collected from 90 heavy-duty vehicles in California, United States, most of which have engine model year 2010 or newer and are equipped with selective catalytic reduction (SCR). The 90 vehicles represent 19 different groups defined by a combination of vocational use and geographic region. The data were collected using advanced data loggers that recorded vehicle speed, position (latitude and longitude), and more than 170 engine and aftertreatment parameters (including engine load and exhaust temperature) at the frequency of one Hz. This article presents plots of real-world exhaust temperature and engine load distributions for the 19 vehicle groups. In each plot, both frequency distribution and cumulative frequency distribution are shown. These distributions are generated using the aggregated data from all vehicle samples in each group.

Real-world exhaust temperature profiles of on-road heavy-duty diesel vehicles equipped with selective catalytic reduction.

On-road heavy-duty diesel vehicles are a major contributor of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions. In the US, many heavy-duty diesel vehicles employ selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to meet the 2010 emission standard for NOx. Typically, SCR needs to be at least 200°C before a significant level of NOx reduction is achieved. However, this SCR temperature requirement may not be met under some real-world operating conditions, such as during cold starts, long idling, or low speed/low engine load driving activities. The frequency of vehicle operation with low SCR temperature varies partly by the vehicle's vocational use. In this study, detailed vehicle and engine activity data were collected from 90 heavy-duty vehicles involved in a range of vocations, including line haul, drayage, construction, agricultural, food distribution, beverage distribution, refuse, public work, and utility repair. The data were used to create real-world SCR temperature and engine load profiles and identify the fraction of vehicle operating time that SCR may not be as effective for NOx control. It is found that the vehicles participated in this study operate with SCR temperature lower than 200°C for 11-70% of the time depending on their vocation type. This implies that real-world NOx control efficiency could deviate from the control efficiency observed during engine certification.

Vehicle specific power approach to estimating on-road NH3 emissions from light-duty vehicles.

NH3 emissions from motor vehicles have been the subject of a number of recent studies due to their potential impact on ambient particulate matter (PM). Highly time-resolved NH3 emissions can be measured and correlated with specific driving events utilizing a tunable diode laser (TDL). It is possible to incorporate NH3 emissions with this new information into models that can be used to predict emissions inventories from vehicles. The newer generation of modal models are based on modal events, with the data collected at second-by-second time resolution, unlike the bag-based emission inventory models such as EMFAC and MOBILE. The development of an NH3 modal model is described in this paper. This represents one of the first attempts to incorporate vehicle NH3 emissions into a comprehensive emissions model. This model was used in conjunction with on-road driving profiles to estimate the emissions of SULEV, ULEV, and LEV vehicles to be 9.4 +/- 4.1, 21.8 +/- 5.2, and 34.9 +/- 6.0 mg/mi, respectively. We also implement this new NH3 model to predict and evaluate the NH3 emission inventory in the South Coast air basin (SoCAB).