Grantee Research Project Results

2017 Progress Report: Diesel Emissions Test Stand to Improve Selective Catalytic Reduction

EPA Grant Number: SU835980
Title: Diesel Emissions Test Stand to Improve Selective Catalytic Reduction
Investigators: Compere, Marc
Current Investigators: Compere, Marc , Noto, Joseph , Prine, Jonathan , Tellez, Daniel , Carrasquillo, Arnaldo
Institution: Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University
EPA Project Officer: Page, Angela
Phase: II
Project Period: September 1, 2015 through August 31, 2017 (Extended to August 31, 2018)
Project Period Covered by this Report: September 1, 2016 through August 31,2017
Project Amount: $74,984
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity and the Planet - Phase 2 (2015) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Sustainable and Healthy Communities , P3 Awards , Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , P3 Challenge Area - Air Quality

Objective:

This EPA P3 Phase II research project is focused on sustainable transportation. We are measuring real-world emissions data to correlate the geo-tagged emissions measurements with driver throttle and braking inputs. We also have developed a weatherproof outdoor computing enclosure for protecting on-board sensors, computers and communications from the outdoor environment. A carbon fiber heat shield allows operation during direct sunlight and four thermoelectric Peltier devices remove heat from the computing enclosure. This regulates interior temperature while operating in summer heat in direct sunlight. To help convey our results in a transferrable way, we are investigating non-dimensional methods for characterizing a drive cycle over a certain duration and distance. This is one way to facilitate greater collaboration among automotive researchers by allowing the community to share and compare data collected from different real-world drive cycles. The long-term research objective is to develop adaptive cruise control algorithms to reduce traffic congestion, which will reduce emissions and energy consumption. This mobile test platform allows us to measure real-world emissions, test non-dimensional, transferrable drive cycle metrics, and ultimately reduce emissions and energy consumption through Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

Progress Summary:

The Phase II Year 2 outputs and outcomes are enumerated below:

1. Working closely with the EPA Project Officer, we successfully navigated an unexpected research barrier from a chronically clogging Diesel SCR exhaust system. We re-focused the project to instrumenting a diesel vehicle with a portable emission analyzer to collecting real-world emissions data. The intent is to correlate the geo-tagged emissions measurements with driver inputs. We also instrumented the vehicle with GPS, and throttle and steering sensors with real time reporting over a live streaming telemetry link while driving.
2. The revised description, budget and milestones were approved by the EPA on January 12, 2017. This approval is attached and also in the Y1 annual report. A 1-year no-cost extension also was approved.
3. We successfully procured the emissions analyzers being purchased at the end of the last reporting period. These were purchased before the project re-direction and were able to be successfully incorporated into the new research.
4. A non-street legal vehicle was purchased for use on the university campus for correlating driver inputs with real-world tail-pipe emissions. A John Deere XUV 855D S4 is our campus driving vehicle. It has a diesel engine and seats four, which means it has a large enough wheelbase to provide mobility representative of passenger vehicles despite low-speed, on-campus driving. For safety reasons, we chose a non-street-legal vehicle that students could drive. The vehicle can reach modest speeds on campus, perhaps 32 mph, has a 17 kW diesel engine which makes it an ideal test platform for real-world emissions measurements. We can also use it to develop adaptive cruise control to reduce emissions and energy consumption. Self-driving vehicles and
automation are active areas of research but very few researchers are exploring Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) specifically to reduce emissions and energy consumption.
5. A weatherproof, temperature controlled computing and sensor enclosure was designed, fabricated, and tested. A carbon fiber heat shield provides shade for direct sunlight operation and four thermo-electric Peltier coolers remove heat from the interior. Temperature is regulated to less than 80◦F during operation in direct sunlight in the Florida summer heat (95◦F+).
6. An on-board data collection and computing system was designed, built and tested with live streaming data telemetry. Three Arduino devices and 1 Raspberry Pi device provided data collection for NO, NO2, CO, CO2, O2, NH3, and SOx emissions gas species, driver’s throttle and steering, GPS position and speed, and periodic snapshots from an on-board camera. Live streaming data was sent over the cell phone network to a linux computer displaying the results in real time, while the vehicle was driving, in a conference room using the Bokeh python software package.
7. Drive cycle experiments were performed and data was collected and presented at the EPA P3’s National Sustainable Design Exposition, 2017.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 4 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

Real-world emissions, diesel emissions measurement, emissions analyzer, live streaming telemetry, ADAS for reduced emissions and energy consumption

Relevant Websites:

The Clean Energy Systems laboratory at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is described here:
https://daytonabeach.erau.edu/about/labs/clean-energy-systems/index.html Exit

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2016 Progress Report

Final Report

P3 Phase I:

Diesel Emissions Test Stand to Improve Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR)  | Final Report