Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM

Clean Diesel Technologies Inc recently evaluated the performance of several commercially available ultra low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuels used with its patented fuel-borne catalyst (FBC) and emission control aftertreatment devices.

More than a dozen separate tests were performed at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio on a 1998 Detroit Diesel Series 60 heavy-duty engine using ULSD from New England, Texas, and California.

Test results indicated that use of the best combination of fuel, hardware, and FBC can provide emissions reductions up to 13% NOx and 90% particulate matter (PM) from this engine, resulting in the elimination of more than 1 ton of regulated pollutants per vehicle per year using this “systems” approach, according to CDT.

Results with an FBC-treated ULSD, produced in Texas by Valero Energy and used with a newly designed flow-through-filter (FTF), demonstrated NOx reductions of 13% and PM reductions of 39%, with no fuel economy penalty or power loss.

Tests of FBC-treated ULSD produced in California by BP/ARCO (known as ECD-1) gave 9% NOx reduction and 35% PM reduction using the FTF system with FBC. More than 90% PM reduction was achieved when ECD-1 was used with the FBC and the wall flow filter system.

Testing on a ULSD marketed in New England by Sprague Energy gave 10% NOx reduction and 50% PM reduction when combined with the FBC and the FTF systems. While the FBC-based systems can operate on normal sulfur fuels, testing confirmed the best results were in combination with ULSD.