Eaton Licenses Clean Diesel Technologies’ ARIS Systems for HC Injection for Eaton Aftertreatment System

8 January 2009

The Eaton Aftertreatment System combines a fuel reformer catalyst with doser, SCR and LNT technology. Click to enlarge.

Eaton Corporation has entered into a global non-exclusive licensing agreement for Clean Diesel Technologies’s Advanced Reagent Injector System (ARIS) technology for injection of hydrocarbon (HC) fuel in emissions reduction applications, including the Eaton Aftertreatment System (EAS). (Earlier post.) ARIS technology can also be applied to regeneration of diesel particulate filters and lean NO_x traps in various global applications.

The Eaton aftertreatment system combines a fuel reformer catalyst with doser, Selective Catalytic Reduction system (SCR) and Lean NO_x Trap (LNT) technology to create an exhaust aftertreatment system capable of meeting 2010 EPA diesel emissions requirements without the need for a urea storage and injection system.

Chemical kinetic mechanism of the EAS. Click to enlarge.

The hydrocarbon doser—i.e., now the ARIS technology—feeds the reformer, producing hydrogen and CO—ideal for use in regenerating the LNT. The LNT produces ammonia in significant amounts; Eaton optimized the system to produce more ammonia than usual. That ammonia becomes the reductant for the second stage SCR catalyst. Eaton acquired the reformer technology with its acquisition of Catalytica in 2006.

The EAS is simple in operation, offers a smaller package size than urea-SCR systems, and carries no additional weight penalty. It also requires only a single dosing system, compared to the required urea doser for SCR plus HC doser for particulate filter regeneration in a typical urea-SCR set-up.

Early testing showed a better than 80% NO_x reduction with less than a 4% fuel penalty for MY 2004 heavy-duty diesels and around a 2% fuel penalty for 2007-compliant engines.

Both Eaton’s innovative aftertreatment and fuel dosing systems have worldwide application for reducing NO_x and particulate matter (PM) emissions from diesel engines. These systems can be used for on-road, off-road and stationary applications, with a combined global market size of new medium-duty and higher engines exceeding 7 million per year. Eaton is targeting NO_x and PM control technologies for production in 2011 and beyond in various applications.

Clean Diesel’s ARIS system features a single-fluid return flow solenoid-actuated injector. The return flow design with integral cooling allows airless injection of reagents in high-temperature environments such as exhaust streams.

ARIS offers precise injection control and good atomization, and the single fluid, return flow design is not prone to injector clogging. The airless nature eliminates the requirement, installation issues and costs of compressed air for traditional air-assisted injection.

We are delighted with the use of our ARIS airless return-flow technology in this application. ARIS technology is more commonly associated with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems based on urea injection; Eaton’s use of hydrocarbon injection underscores the broad applicability of our ARIS technology. Eaton has taken two NO_x-reducing technologies and packaged them into a system where they can work together, taking advantage of several catalytic reactions to reduce harmful emissions.

—Dr. Bernhard Steiner, Chief Executive Officer of Clean Diesel

Resources

• Eaton Aftertreatment System (EAS) for On-Highway Diesel Engines (DEER 2006)