Tenneco and GE Transportation to Develop Hydrocarbon-SCR Technology for Diesel Emission Aftertreatment

4 February 2009

Results from a 2007 GE study on HC-SCR showing %NOx conversion with 0 ppm H2, b) 1900 ppm H2. Whisenhunt et al. Click to enlarge.

Tenneco Inc. and GE Transportation, a unit of General Electric Company will collaborate on the development and production of GE’s Hydrocarbon-Selective Catalytic Reduction catalyst technology (HC-SCR), a diesel aftertreatment system for reducing nitrogen oxide (NO_x) emissions as effectively as urea-based SCR systems.

Tenneco, an industry leader in emission control technology and global supplier to many leading global automakers and commercial vehicle manufacturers, will work with GE to further develop and integrate the HC-SCR technology into complete aftertreatment systems for both the locomotive and off-highway vehicle markets. Once fully developed, the technology will also be offered to customers in the on-road, marine and stationary power markets.

Tenneco will also have the opportunity to develop GE’s HC-SCR technology for expanded markets. Through an agreement with GE’s Technology Ventures team, Tenneco has acquired licensing rights for GE’s HC-SCR technology for on-road and off-highway vehicles, marine and stationary power applications and certain locomotive fields of use.

The two companies also announced that Tenneco has been awarded a development contract for locomotive projects and that Tenneco is positioned to become a long-term strategic supplier of diesel aftertreatment solutions to GE Transportation.

GE’s HC-SCR technology has been under development since 2001 at GE Global Research, the centralized research and development organization for all of GE. The use of hydrocarbons (HC-SCR) or oxygenates (Ethanol-SCR) as a reductant in the selective catalytic reduction of NO_x to N₂ can offer a number of engineering advantages over urea/ammonia-based SCR technologies, including:

• No need for an extra reductant, since the primary fuel can be used.

• On-board application without any installation of additional infrastructure.

• The potential to simultaneously remove both NO_x and/or partially burned hydrocarbons from engine emissions.

HC-SCR has been under study for decades, with one of the main issues to be resolved being the catalyst. GE Global Research assembled a multi-disciplinary team of catalyst, ceramics and combustion experts, as well as engine designers, to help create its new HC-SCR catalyst. GE has explored a variety of reaction pathways, and a large variety of catalyst systems. Some of the best lab results have been returned by Ag (silver) loaded on a support such as SiO₂, TiO₂, ZrO₂, Al₂O₃ or zeolites.

Once its is fully developed, GE expects the HC-SCR technology to provide advantages in weight, packaging, and convenience, in addition to being offered as an alternative to a urea-based SCR technology. Tenneco currently offers its ELIM-NOx urea-based SCR aftertreatment solutions for commercial on and off-road vehicle customers.

Additional details regarding the licensing agreement, long-term production supplier agreement and development contract are not being disclosed at this time.

Resources

• Whisenhunt, D.W. et al. (2007) High-Throughput Screening of NO_x HC-SCR Catalysts. North American Catalysis Society (NACS) - 20th North American Meeting (NAM)

• Mhadeshwar, A. et al. (2007) Microkinetic Modeling of Ethanol and other Hydrocarbon (HC)-based Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) of NO_x on Silver-based Catalyst. North American Catalysis Society (NACS) - 20th North American Meeting (NAM)

• Moon Hyeon Kim and In-Sik Nam (2004) New Opportunity for HC-SCR Technology to Control NO_x Emission from Advanced Internal Combustion Engines. Catalysis, Volume 18