Corning Incorporated’s Environmental Technologies business reached a significant production milestone at its Kaiserslautern, Germany manufacturing facility with the production of its 1 millionth Corning DuraTrap GC gasoline particulate filter (GPF) for automotive emissions control.

The facility launched an expansion effort in 2016 for production of these ceramic particulate filters, engineered specifically for gasoline engines, in anticipation of European auto market demand for this new emissions control technology.

Corning adapted its successful diesel filter design to meet the needs of gasoline particulate filters. In our product, alternating plugs force air through porous walls that trap soot particles.

These gasoline particulate filters help automakers meet the new Euro 6d emissions standard and introduce some of their cleanest gasoline models yet. Corning’s production scale-up effort for DuraTrap GC filters has been critical to ensure supply and support customers ahead of the regulatory implementation.

Leveraging particulate filters in gasoline systems is an important engineering advancement for clean-vehicle technology in Europe as gasoline vehicles grow in popularity. Advanced gasoline engines, including high-performance gasoline-direct-injection (GDI) engines, offer consumers better fuel economy without sacrificing engine performance. However, they produce a high number of fine particulates, such as PM_2.5, that impact air quality and human health.

Euro 6d emissions standards, which will be fully phased in by September 2018, call for a significant reduction in fine particulate emissions from GDI engine vehicles under new real-driving emissions (RDE) testing. These standards necessitate the use of particulate filtration in the treatment of exhaust, a technology successfully utilized on diesel passenger vehicles in Europe since the early 2000s.

DuraTrap GC filters are designed and optimized to help automakers effectively reduce fine particulate emissions from gasoline engines. These filters feature a new, cordierite-based material composition with an innovative engineered ceramic microstructure that delivers high filtration efficiency of fine particulates, while maintaining engine performance with low back pressure. A range of wash coat loading needs are also supported for additional catalytic activity to help address tighter gaseous emissions standards as well.

Corning offers the cordierite filters in two porosity options to help meet varying design needs.

China will be the next market to introduce particulate filtration of gasoline engine exhaust. New emissions regulations, known as China 6, will be implemented beginning in 2020, and will apply to all gasoline engine vehicles, not just GDI.

Once China 6 regulations are fully implemented in 2023, most gasoline vehicles in China will potentially require a gasoline particulate filter. Corning’s growing collaboration with major automakers in China, driven by its advantaged DuraTrap GC filter product portfolio, is increasing the company’s pace of investment, including a new manufacturing facility in Hefei, China, announced in 2017.

Once regulations are fully adopted in Europe and China, Corning expects to build a gasoline particulate filter business with an estimated $500 million in annual sales.

Corning is a leading supplier of advanced cellular ceramic substrates and ceramic particulate filters for the world's major manufacturers of gasoline and diesel vehicles. The company invented an economical, high-performance, cellular ceramic substrate in the early 1970s that is now the standard for catalytic converters worldwide. In 1978, Corning developed the cellular ceramic particulate filter to remove soot from diesel emissions.