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MIT's plasmatron cuts diesel bus emissions, promises better gas engine efficiency - MIT News OfficeSkip
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MIT's plasmatron cuts diesel bus emissions, promises better gas engine
efficiency
October 16, 2003
A bus in Indiana is the latest laboratory for MIT's plasmatron reformer, a
small device its developers believe could significantly cut the nation's
oil consumption as well as noxious emissions from a variety of vehicles.
The work will be the subject of an invited talk next Thursday, October 30,
at a meeting of the American Physical Society's Division of Plasma Physics
in Albuquerque, NM.
The researchers and colleagues from industry report that the plasmatron,
used with an exhaust treatment catalyst on a diesel engine bus, removed up
to 90 percent of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the bus's emissions. Nitrogen
oxides are the primary components of smog.
The plasmatron reformer also cut in half the amount of fuel needed for the
removal process. "The absorption catalyst approach under consideration for
diesel exhaust NOx removal requires additional fuel to work," explained
Daniel R. Cohn, one of the leaders of the team and head of the Plasma
Technology Division at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). "The
plasmatron reformer reduced that amount of fuel by a factor of two
compared to a system without the plasmatron."
Cohn noted that the plasmatron reformer also allowed the NOx absorption
catalyst to be effective at the low exhaust temperatures characteristic of
urban use.
These results, reported at a U.S. Department of Energy Diesel Engine
Emissions Reduction (DEER) meeting in August, indicate that the plasmatron
reformer, in conjunction with an NOx absorber catalyst, could be one of
the most promising ways to meet stricter emissions limits for all heavy
trucks and buses. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to institute
the new limits by 2007.
"Diesel-engine vehicles generally do not have exhaust treatment systems,"
Cohn said, adding that treating diesel exhaust is much more difficult than
gasoline exhaust.
Under development for the last six years, the plasmatron is an onboard
"oil reformer" that converts a variety of fuels into high-quality,
hydrogen-rich gas. Adding a relatively modest amount of such gas to the
gasoline powering a car or to a diesel vehicle's exhaust is known to have
benefits for cutting the emissions of pollutants. "Prior to the plasmatron
reformer development, there was no attractive way to produce that hydrogen
on board," said Cohn.
His colleagues are Leslie Bromberg and Alexander Rabinovich of the PSFC;
John Heywood, director of MIT's Sloan Automotive Lab and the Sun Jae
Professor of Mechanical Engineering; and Rudolf M. Smaling, a graduate
student in the Engineering Systems Division. Smaling is an engineering
manager from ArvinMeritor, a major automotive and heavy truck components
company that has licensed the plasmatron technology from MIT. The bus
engine tests were performed at the company's facility in Columbus, Ind.,
by an ArvinMeritor team.
TOWARD INCREASED GASOLINE ENGINE EFFICIENCY
The team is finding that the device could make vehicles cleaner and more
efficient, with a potentially significant impact on oil consumption.
"If widespread use of plasmatron hydrogen-enhanced gasoline engines could
eventually increase the average efficiency of cars and other light-duty
vehicles by 20 percent, the amount of gasoline that could be saved would
be around 25 billion gallons a year," Cohn said. "That corresponds to
around 70 percent of the oil that is currently imported by the United
States from the Middle East."
The Bush administration has made development of a hydrogen-powered vehicle
a priority, Heywood noted. "That's an important goal, as it could lead to
more efficient, cleaner vehicles, but is it the only way to get there?
Engines using plasmatron reformer technology could have a comparable
impact, but in a much shorter time frame," he said.
"Our objective is to have the plasmatron in production--and in
vehicles--by 2010," Smaling said. ArvinMeritor is working with a vehicle
concept specialist company to build a proof-of-concept vehicle that
incorporates the plasmatron in an internal combustion engine. "We'd like
to have a driving vehicle in one and a half years to demonstrate the
benefits," Smaling said.
In the meantime, the team continues to improve the base technology. At the
DEER meeting, Bromberg, for example, reported cutting the plasmatron's
consumption of electric power "by a factor of two to three."
The work is funded by the Department of Energy's FreedomCAR and Vehicle
Technologies Program and by ArvinMeritor.