Synthesis of Pd0.01FexCe(1-x)/2Zr(1-x)/2Oy catalysts and its catalytic performance for ammonia production of passive SCR reaction

The passive ammonia SCR system has been considered as a novel after-treatment method to reduce the emission of NOx and produce ammonia for downstream SCR. A series of Pd0.01FexCe(1-x)/2Zr(1-x)/2Oy catalysts...

Direct Measurement of Ammonia Storage on Passive SCR Systems for Lean Gasoline NOx Reduction Using Radio Frequency Sensing

Lean gasoline engine operation provides clear efficiency benefits relative to conventional stoichiometric combustion approaches. One of the key hurdles to the widespread, practical implementation of lean gasoline combustion remains the challenge of lean NOx control. One of the potential approaches for controlling NOx emission from lean gasoline engines is the so-called passive selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system. In such systems, periods of rich operation generate ammonia over a three-way catalyst (TWC), which is then adsorbed on the downstream SCR and consumed during lean operation. Brief periods of rich operation must occur in response to the depletion of stored ammonia on the SCR, which requires reliable measurements of the SCR ammonia inventory. Presently, lean exhaust system controls rely on a variety of gas sensors mounted up- and downstream of the catalysts, and which only provide an indirect inference of the operation state. In this study, a radio frequency (RF) sensor was used to provide a direction measurement of the amount of ammonia adsorbed on the SCR in real-time. The RF sensor was calibrated and deployed on a BMW N43B20 4-cylinder lean gasoline engine equipped with a passive SCR system. Brief periods of rich operation performed at lambda values between 0.98 and 0.99 generated the ammonia, subsequently stored on the SCR for consumption during periods of lean operation. The experiments compared real-time measurements of SCR ammonia inventory from the RF sensor with estimates of ammonia coverage derived from exhaust gas composition measurements upstream and downstream of the catalyst. The results showed a high degree of correlation between the RF measurements and SCR ammonia storage inventory, and demonstrated NOx conversion efficiencies above 98%, confirming the feasibility of the concept. Relative to stoichiometric operation, lean-gasoline operation resulted in fuel efficiency gains of up to 10%, which may be further improved through direct feedback control from the RF sensor to optimize lean–rich cycling based on actual, measured SCR ammonia levels.

Experimental Study and Model Predictive Control of a Lean-Burn Gasoline Engine Coupled With a Passive Selective Catalytic Reduction System

Lean-burn gasoline engines have demonstrated 10–20% engine efficiency gain over stoichiometric engines and are widely considered as a promising technology for meeting the 54.5 miles-per-gallon (mpg) corporate average fuel economy standard by 2025. Nevertheless, nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions control for lean-burn gasoline for meeting the stringent Environmental Protection Agency tier 3 emission standards has been one of the main challenges toward the commercialization of highly efficient lean-burn gasoline engines in the United States. Passive selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems, which consist of a three-way catalyst (TWC) and SCR, have demonstrated great potentials of effectively reducing NOx emissions for lean gasoline engines at low cost. However, passive SCR operation may cause significant fuel penalty since rich engine combustion is required for ammonia generation. The purpose of this study is to develop a model-predictive control (MPC) scheme for a lean-burn gasoline engine coupled with a passive SCR system to minimize the total equivalent fuel penalty associated with passive SCR operation while satisfying stringent NOx and ammonia (NH3) emissions requirements. Simulation results demonstrate that the MPC approach can reduce the fuel penalty by 43.9% in a simulated US06 cycle and 28.0% in a simulated urban dynamometer driving schedule (UDDS) cycle, respectively, compared to the baseline control, while achieving over 97% DeNOx efficiency and less than 15 ppm tailpipe ammonia slip. The proposed MPC controller can potentially enable highly efficient lean-burn gasoline engines while meeting the stringent Environmental Protection Agency tier 3 emission standards.

Simultaneous Optimization of Configuration and Control for a Passive SCR System

The configuration and control of aftertreatment systems have a significant impact on their functionalities and emission control performance. The traditional aftertreatment system configurations, i.e., connections from one aftertreatment subsystem to another subsystem in series, are simple but generally do not yield the optimal aftertreatment system performance. New aftertreatment configurations, in conjunction with new engine and aftertreatment control, can significantly improve engine efficiency and emission reduction performance. However, new configuration design requires human intuition and in-depth knowledge of engine and aftertreatment system design and control. The purpose of this study is to develop a general systematic and computationally-efficient method which enables automated and simultaneous optimization of passive selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system architectures and the associated non-uniform cylinder-to-cylinder combustion (NUCCC) controls based on a newly proposed highly reconfigurable passive SCR model structure and integer partition theory. The proposed method is general enough to account for passive SCR systems with two or more TWC stages. We demonstrate through this case study that the optimized passive SCR configuration, in conjunction with the optimized NUCCC control, can reduce the NH3 specific fuel consumption by up to 21.90%.

Optimization of Mode Switching Timing Control for a Lean-Burn Gasoline Engine With a Prototype Passive SCR System

Passive selective catalytic reduction (SCR) has emerged as a promising NOx reduction technology for highly-efficient lean-burn gasoline engines to meet stringent NOx emission regulation in a cost-effective manner. In this study, a prototype passive SCR which includes an upstream three-way catalyst (TWC) with added NOx storage component, and a downstream urealess SCR catalyst, was investigated. Engine experiments were conducted to investigate and quantify the dynamic NOx storage/release behaviors as well as dynamic NH3 generation behavior on the new TWC with added NOx storage component. Then, the lean/rich mode-switching timing control was optimized to minimize the fuel penalty associated with passive SCR operation. Simulation results show that, compared to the baseline mode-switching timing control, the optimized control can reduce the passive SCR-related fuel penalty by 6.7%. Such an optimized mode-switching timing control strategy is rather instrumental in realizing significant fuel efficiency benefits for lean-burn gasoline engines coupled with cost-effective passive SCR systems.

Configuration and Control Design for a Passive SCR System With NOx Storage Capability

Passive selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems have been considered as a promising technology for reducing NOx emissions for highly-efficient lean burn gasoline engines. Since passive SCR requires intermittent rich operation for self-generating ammonia (NH3) for NOx reduction in the lean phase, the fuel penalty associated with NH3 generation may be significant. To address this issue, a new prototype passive SCR system with NOx storage capability was recently investigated. The three-way catalyst (TWC) with added NOx storage capability is able to enhance NH3 production rate by utilizing pre-stored NOx and thus reduce the fuel cost related to NH3 production. The main purpose of this study is to reduce the ammonia generation cost by: 1) proposing a new passive SCR system architecture that includes two TWC stages; and 2) developing and optimizing a novel non-uniform cylinder-to-cylinder combustion (NUCCC) control. Optimization results based on the experimental data from a physical engine platform, demonstrate that the new passive SCR system (with NOx storage components on TWCs), in conjunction with optimized NUCCC control, is capable of reducing ammonia specific fuel consumption (ASFC) by 30.2%, when compared to a uniform cylinder-to-cylinder combustion (UCCC)-controlled baseline passive SCR system. Such a novel NUCCC control and innovative passive SCR configuration, will be very instrumental in creating cost-effective lean NOx emission control solutions for lean-burn engines in the future.