FORVIA (EX-FAURECIA) Shanghai (China) / Nanterre (France), April 20, 2015
City Buses across Europe emit up to 95% less NOx in tests of Faurecia Emissions Control System Faurecia's Ammonia Storage and Delivery System demonstrates its superiority over conventional AdBlue® fluid for converting nitrogen oxides from diesel engines into harmless molecules
Faurecia announced today that, in recent real-world tests across major European cities, its Ammonia Storage and Delivery System (ASDS), developed with its partner Amminex, converted as much as 95 percent of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from city buses into non-polluting nitrogen and water. These results are certain to change the course of emissions control for commercial vehicles around the world.
Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies revealed its test findings at Auto Shanghai 2015. Controlling NOx emissions from diesel engines is particularly important in China, where 80 percent of exhaust gases come from trucks and buses.
To evaluate the superiority of ASDS over Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF), commonly known as AdBlue®, buses in London (UK), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Buffalo (USA) were retrofitted by replacing AdBlue® with ASDS. The London double-decker city bus converted just 32 percent of the NOx with DEF, but during ten months of operation with ASDS it has been converting 85 percent. The Copenhagen bus released 6 grams of NOx/kWh with DEF, but the same bus released just a fourth of that amount, about 1.5 grams of NOx/kWh, when equipped with the ASDS, during 15 months of operation.
In both European capital cities, the buses would have failed to meet the new European standards for NOx emissions with DEF but would have more than achieved those standards with the ASDS.
The most extraordinary results, however, were obtained in Copenhagen, where a city bus was upgraded from Euro V to Euro VI compliance by installing the latest diesel oxidation catalyst, diesel particulate filter and selective catalytic reduction technology. In this way the bus was optimized for using the ASDS. During eleven months of operation, the ASDS reduced NOx emissions to just 0.4 grams of NOx/kWh, converting 95 percent of the NOx emissions to water and nitrogen.
"In each of these tests, which applied real driving situations for buses in major cities, the ASDS demonstrated a superior performance compared with AdBlue®," said Stephane Martinot, Marketing Director of Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies. "In addition, the ASDS left no exhaust system deposits, since nothing decomposes in the system, and ASDS eliminated DEF maintenance. The ASDS produced no carbon dioxide emissions of its own, because the system uses no carbon-based compounds. ASDS does not increase CO2 emissions since it does not require active heat management of the catalysts."
The benefit of the ASDS to the environment becomes clear when the system's overall effectiveness is compared with the DEF system. As an example, the demonstration bus in London using AdBlue® would be able to travel just 143 km before emitting 1 kg of NOx. With the ASDS, the same bus will travel more than
2,000 km before emitting 1 kg of NOx, 14 times farther than the same bus equipped with DEF.
Unlike, typical NOx reduction systems using urea, ASDS provides pure ammonia directly to the exhaust system in a manner that allows diesel vehicles to begin converting NOx more quickly, thereby significantly reducing dangerous emissions.
Because the ASDS stores ammonia within a solid salt material called AdAmmine™, which was developed by Amminex, it has twice the storage density of Diesel Exhaust Fluid. To store 4 kg of ammonia, a vehicle would need 21.6 liters of DEF but just 9.2 liters of AdAmmine™. That means ASDS cartridges must be changed far less frequently than DEF tanks must be refilled.
At Auto Shanghai 2015, Faurecia is exhibiting a full physical Ammonia Storage and Delivery System that
incorporates an AdAmmine™ cartridge, a start-up unit, control unit and an ammonia dosing unit.
Faurecia is one of the world's largest automotive equipment suppliers in four activities: Automotive Seating, Emissions Control
Technologies, Interior Systems and Automotive Exteriors. In 2014, the Group posted total sales of €18.8 billion. At December 31,
2014, Faurecia employed 100,000 people in 34 countries at 330 sites and 30 R&D centers. Faurecia is listed on the NYSE Euronext
Paris stock exchange and trades in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market. For more information, visit: www.faurecia.com
Media contact:Olivier Le Friec
Head of Media Relations
Tel: +33 1 72 36 72 58
Cell: +33 6 76 87 30 17 olivier.lefriec@faurecia.com
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