'APBF-DEC' budget threat stirs talks with congress

Diesel Fuel News, June 9, 2003 by Jack Peckham

The U.S. government/industry "Advanced Petroleum Based Fuels-Diesel Emission Control" (APBF-DEC) program -- threatened with extinction in U.S. President George Bush's fiscal 2004 budget (see Diesel Fuel News 3/3/03, p1) -- is starting to refocus its work this year, especially for critical durability tests on the nitrogen oxides (NOx) adsorber.

Meantime, the industries involved in the project -- auto/engine makers, refiners, chemical companies, catalyst companies, research labs -- are talking with Congress about ways to ensure the survival of key elements of the program into 2004, sources on APBF-DEC steering committee told us.

On a parallel front, the program is itself being trimmed and refocused -- well in advance of any possible U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) fiscal 2004 budget cut.

According to the program's official "Spring 2003" quarterly update, a new test program -- if finally approved by APBF-DEC steering committee -- would allow passenger-car engine NOx adsorber test aging time to hit 2,200 hours by next year, assuming the funds are still available.

However, the scaled-back program only would allow testing of a "single-leg" NOx adsorber for heavy-duty diesel application for 2,300 hours -- far short of what engine makers need to show for equivalent 435,000 miles durability for EPA's 2007/20 10 limits on NOx and PM.

Ironically, U.S. EPA and some other tech developers see dual-leg NOx adsorber schemes as more likely to succeed (especially in heavy-duty), as they're seen to be more fuel-efficient and perhaps better-able to reduce or avoid thermal "sintering" problems arising from required desulfurization cycles.

Engine-maker calculations vary on hours/mileage equivalence, but 6,000 hours is seen as the minimum equivalence to 435,000 miles, while others put the figure closer to 10,000 hours.

Having only 2,300-hours durability in the APBF-DEC program reconfiguration could raise questions about whether this can give U.S. EPA public, peer-reviewed data (rather than proprietary data) and incontrovertible proof showing required NOx trap durability, efficiency and practicality -- the key issues in EPA's biannual technology "feasibility reviews" for 2007/2010 emissions compliance. What's more, without fiscal 2004 funding, even this 2,300 hours durability test data is in doubt.

Meantime, whatever R&D that catalyst and engine makers do privately (separate from APBF-DEC R&D work) won't necessarily be divulged publicly, and it's doubtful that this private work will go through the sort of peer-review process as in the APBF-DEC program to verify technology claims.

Accelerated aging techniques conceivably could compensate for the lack of 6,000 or 10,000 hours NOx-adsorber aging in conventional testing. But EPA's own experts at its engine laboratories in Ann Arbor, Mich., point out that accelerated aging isn't quite up-to-speed for NOx adsorbers. While EPA is trying to develop a rapid thermal-aging technique, today's state-of-art indicates it's "very difficult to rapidly age NOx adsorbers," EPA engineer Joe McDonald pointed out at last month's Society of Automotive Engineers government/industry meeting.

Killing APBF-DEC can be seen as coming at a particularly bad time for the diesel engine industry, battered by a severe downturn in sales in part due to a sagging economy and also due to the after-effects of the early introduction of 2004 emissions-compliant engines last fall. Many truckers are avoiding or delaying purchase of the "cleaner" engines with exhaust gas recirculation (EGR).

Reason: fears of mileage penalties, maintenance problems and resistance to paying the higher cost of such engines.

So now, if all the costs of re-creating a "mini-APBF-DEC" were to be dumped on individual engine/vehicle makers and industry partners, then that could severely degrade the speed and quality of NOx trap technology development, program defenders tell us.

Today, it's now possible for a developer of the "latest and greatest" NOx trap to just "swap in and out the technologies" without facing costly test cell set-up and recalibration, explains APBF-DEC research coordinator Wendy Clark at National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

More highlights of APBF-DEC's new program reconfiguration:

# The NOx adsorber/diesel particulate filter (DPF) project on medium-duty truck/SUV application (at Southwest Research Institute, SwRI) is switching to tests of only one dual-leg system, rather than two systems as originally planned.

# The heavy-duty, single-leg NOx adsorber tests on a 15-liter Cummins ISX engine (at Ricardo labs) was to begin durability testing last month, with a 15-ppm sulfur diesel fuel. This would be followed by a 300-hour test with 8-ppm sulfur fuel, all to be completed next year.

# The passenger car NOx adsorber/DPF test (on an Audi A4 car with a 1.9-liter TDI engine) at FEV was starting the final stages of emission control system optimization last month. This work is slated for follow-up evaluation at EPA labs in Ann Arbor.

i# A DPF/selective catalytic reduction (SCR) combo test project on a Cat C-12 heavy-duty engine (at SwRI) is in the midst of calibration of transient test cycle. The aim is to test this system with 6,000 hours of aging.