Engineering and electronics company Bosch has just announced that it has developed a new system that could solve the pollution problems associated with diesel engines. The company says that it would slash emissions and help avoid the driving bans that could kill the diesel engine.
Bosch designs and manufactures control systems for all automotive systems. That includes sensors, body electronics, and emissions control systems. Now the company has said that it has found a way to control the biggest remaining emission from the diesel engine, nitrogen oxides.
Since particulate filters were added to the diesel, oxides of nitrogen have been the biggest hurdle to diesel pollution. Most modern diesel engines use diesel exhaust fluid to help reduce the concentration of the oxides, but it is far from an ideal solution. Bosch points out that the challenge is to bring them down in testing, but also in the real world.
The company isn't getting into detail as to how the system works but says that the new process works to optimize management of exhaust temperatures. Since NOx is created in the high temperatures caused by engine combustion, temperature management has the potential to slash NOx emissions. Bosch says that it can cut emissions to just one-tenth of current limits without adding hardware components. That's in real-world use, not in a lab, says the company.
Bosch says the new process is close to entering production, and that it doesn't expect the technology to add to the cost of vehicles. The company called for more transparency in emissions testing to give a better view of the real impact of vehicles on air quality.
CEO Volkmar Denner said that the company has also prohibited any tech that can tell if it's being tested, and that they aren't optimizing products to fool tests. Bosch was involved in the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal where vehicles detected they were being tested and operated differently than they would on the road.
The company didn't say when the new innovation would arrive in a production car.
