Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/667099
64 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | APRIL 2016 EQUIPMENT: NEXT-GENERATION EMISSIONS CONTROLS It ain't easy being green When 2010 fi nally arrived and engine OEMs had cleared most of the early Phase I emissions hurdles, EPA teamed up with the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration to introduce the 2014 Green House Gas carbon dioxide restrictions. Unlike its NOx and PM counterparts, compliance for CO 2 became a benefi t drivers could feel somewhere other than their lungs – their fuel cards. "[GHG regulation] is not only good for the environment, but it also brings gains in effi ciency in the form of savings in fuel," Sanchez-Lara says. Because CO 2 formation is directly related to fuel consumption, the current GHG regulations essentially mandate fuel economy improvements, says Kary Schaefer, general manager of marketing and strategy for Daimler Trucks North America. With viable, successful and emissions-compliant engines already on the market, GHG14 allowed engine makers to further improve emerging effi ciencies. "We put a lot of work into optimizing the combustion recipe to take advantage of the aftertreatment," Sanchez-Lara says. GHG14 ratchets up next year with GHG17, with the end result requiring a 9 to 23 percent reduction in emissions and fuel consumption from affected tractors over 2010 baselines. Schaefer says DTNA used its GHG17 project as an opportu- nity to showcase full vehicle and powertrain developments that meet the stringent regulations and provide real-world benefi ts to its customers. "We focused on powertrain, aerodynamics, controls, energy management and more," she says. "Detroit made innovations to reduce both parasitic load and friction, contributing to improved performance and effi ciency. In addition, Detroit made improve- ments in fuel management and exhaust aftertreatment technol- ogy that also contribute to improved fuel economy." Sanchez-Lara says Cummins used GHG mandates to further refi ne the technologies that originally helped the company meet EPA 2010 compliance. "We focused on reducing all the parasitic losses that we knew of and also modifying the performance curve of the engine to enable downspeeding," he says. "We worked on making the engine breathe easier, to lose less power on some of the systems inherent to the engine, and developing an engine that produced peak torque as low as 1,000 rpm." As EPA's Phase I neared its end and engineers were still on task squeezing the fi nal drops of effi ciency from the truck's power- plant, OEMs began to hone in on the benefi ts of marrying the engine to other optimized systems on the truck. "What has helped us is also the collaboration that is happen- ing now with the powertrain," Sanchez-Lara says, making note of Cummins' partnership with Eaton on the SmartAdvantage platform. "The collaboration between the engine and transmission, the proper gearing, is helping us to maintain the engine operat- ing, most of the time, very effi ciently," he says. "That is helping to further the effi ciency gains that the customers are seeing in miles-per-gallon improvement." Schaefer says being able to leverage the expertise of Daimler's global powertrain engineering organization has allowed Detroit to focus its efforts on integrating the individual powertrain com- ponents into an effi cient package for its customers. "In addition to engines and transmissions, Detroit has con- tinued to expand its product offerings to include axles, safety systems and telematics," she says. What's next? EPA and NHTSA, in collaboration with the California Air Re- sources Board, plan to extend the Heavy-Duty National Program beyond model year 2018 to further reduce fuel consumption and reduce CO 2 emissions before 2028 by up to 4 percent compared to Phase 1. "As people get more and more fi xated about CO 2 or fuel economy standards, it's also going to raise a question," Golden says. "This beautiful overengineered emissions system – how's it going to have to evolve to be consistent with the engine calibra- tion changing, or [to get] better fuel economy, because all kinds of things have to change about engine design to get better fuel economy. How does that impact the next-generation aftertreat- ment system?" Phase II doesn't mandate a specifi c new engine technology, and engine OEMs are free to take a variety of paths and methods to meet the effi ciency gain goal. Jackie Yeager, Cummins' global energy policy director, says the company already is mulling how it will rise to meet Phase II at 2.0% 3.5% 2.3% 0.5% 3.5% 4.0% 0.0% 1.0% 2.0% 3.0% 4.0% 5.0% 6.0% 7.0% 8.0% 9.0% 10.0% 11.0% 12.0% 13.0% 14.0% 15.0% 2010 2011 - 2012 2013 2014 - 2015 2016 SmartAdvantage ADEPT with PCC Optimized use of SCR, NAAC and reduced parasitic losses Reduced parasitic and enhanced low end torque for downspeeding Combustion & System Optimization Optimized use of SCR, Reduced front gear train parasitic loads and optimized turbocharger 400 – 475 HP Fuel Economy Progress Line-haul & Regional Applications ST2 (1%) Cummins says that through its ongoing partnership with Eaton on the SmartAdvantage powertrain platform, the collaboration between the engine and transmission and the proper gearing has helped to maintain the engine's operating eciency and further eciency gains that customers are seeing in mpg improvement.