Building Blocks for a Clean Future

Cars without diesel engines are unthinkable nowadays. In Europe, the diesel engine now holds a market share of 50 percent and long ago traded in the image of the “smoking, sluggish” vehicle engine for that of the “economical performer.” And also in the United States, many analysts believe that the self-igniting engine will enjoy triumphant success. Drivers appreciate it for its low fuel consumption and high torque, and vehicle manufacturers need it in order to lower their fleet consumption and meet CO2 targets. The diesel engine does, however, face tough obstacles: With the pollutant standards Euro 5, starting in 2009, and Euro 6, starting in 2014, the limit values for emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxides (NOX) will fall to a level that makes profound technical interventions necessary.

Siemens VDO supports vehicle and engine manufacturers facing these tasks with a comprehensive system-based approach that enables the sustained reduction of emissions, while at the same time not losing sight of consumption and costs. The “engine emission management” concept introduced in Vienna during the Motor Symposium is based on a modular kit of building blocks for optimization within the engine, the exhaust-gas aftertreatment, as well as engine management. The individual elements of which can be combined in almost any configuration desired, depending on the vehicle and engine power class. In this way, all vehicles, from economical compact cars to heavy SUVs, can securely pass the hurdles posed by Euro 5 and Euro 6.

In this respect the measures for optimization within the engine which concern engine management, such as the model-based air path, the minimum fuel mass adaptation or the pressure wave compensation, aim primarily at achieving even greater precision in the measurement of fuel and oxygen and with it more tightly focused control of the combustion process. In addition, a further increase of the injection pressure, an increased number of up to seven partial injections during a single work cycle, and additional and significantly finer holes in the nozzles also constitute essential measures to reduce emissions from within the engine. With an eye to future generations of engines with increasingly homogeneous combustion, Siemens VDO is furthermore working on even more sensitive sensors, with which combustion within the respective cycle can be analyzed, enabling more precise actuators to be immediately influenced.

Trials on the test bench show that many vehicles, even up to the medium class, can reach the limit values set by future pollutant standards with these measures alone, without any increase in their fuel consumption. Depending on the vehicle class, model program and market situation, expanded exhaust-gas aftertreatment may, however, be more sensible from a technical and economic point of view. In addition, many other configurations in which the optimum is achieved by combining a limited number of measures within the engine and simple NOx exhaust-gas aftertreatment are also conceivable. Along with the particle filters that will become obligatory under Euro 6, the new set of building blocks from Siemens VDO therefore also provides for the use of NOX storage or SCR catalysts. Siemens VDO is also working on an electronic engine management system that is flexible and open enough to manage all the conceivable combinations of these individual modules, either within a single construction series or on one platform. The new “engine emission management” concept from Siemens VDO leaves the choice of the individual modules completely open. In this way, vehicle and engine manufacturers can choose the optimum combination depending on their model policy and performance and cost framework so that the diesel engine can move towards an even cleaner future.

With its modular “engine emission management,” however, Siemens VDO is not only contributing to the sustainable reduction of NOX emissions. The set of building blocks also opens up new possibilities for keeping fuel consumption, along with CO2 emissions, firmly under control. The developers not only keep the energy consumption of system components such as the high-pressure pump in mind, for example, but also establish, the framework conditions for more-effective combustion with the optimized purification of exhaust gas. All of these steps will serve to ensure that the diesel engine remains an indispensable drive, whilst remaining compliant with environmental protection targets in the future.

There is a photo to go with this press release. The image and the press release are available for downloading online at http://www.siemensvdo.com/press

Further information for readers and end customers is available at:
http://www.siemensvdo.com/contactus