Continuing just-auto’s series of interviews with leading players in the global exhaust system market, Matthew Beecham talked with Tim Jackson, Executive Vice President, Technology, Strategy and Business Development and Wolfgang Reuter, Vice President, Sales & Engineering, Emission Control Europe.
The current trend on gasoline engine, at least in Europe, is the downsizing linked with introduction of turbochargers. For example, a 1.6-litre North America gasoline becomes a 1.2-litre turbo gasoline. In what ways has this trend affected the exhaust system?
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Tim Jackson: Well ironically it has actually created additional opportunities for Tenneco because typically the sizing of any after-treatment system does not follow the displacement of the engine, it follows the power rating of the engine. Certainly as vehicle manufacturers have downsized in turbocharge they have maintained – or in some cases even improved – those power ratings.
Additionally, when technologies such as gasoline direct injection are introduced to the downsized turbocharged engines those create opportunities for Tenneco for the very first time in terms of treating gasoline particulates; traditionally particulate matter and particulate number have been diesel engine concerns, but in a downsized boosted gasoline engine that uses gasoline direct injection there simply is not enough premix time for the gasoline to fully vaporise. So very similar to the diesel engines you end up with a very small diameter particulate but a very large number of particulates. Indeed the Euro VI legislation and pending Euro VII creates the need for these gasoline particulate filters for the first time.
Finally I would mention that as engines downsize and boost we see many incremental opportunities to supply elements like fabricated manifolds. In fact, we’ve got fabricated manifolds on display [at the IAA] that have actually now been fully integrated into the turbocharger housing. The reason that the vehicle manufacturers and engine companies do this for the boosted gasoline engines is because a turbocharger is, especially during a cold start, a large thermal mass that’s placed between the exhaust outlets of the engine and the catalyst. So in order to minimise that thermal mass and allow it to get a quick light off, there’s been a desire to actually integrate the turbocharger housing directly to that fabricated manifold with no joints; the two are actually welded together. This has given additional content opportunities for Tenneco.
So actually I would say we’re quite happy with the trend towards downsizing boosting, and in particular gasoline direct injected engines, because of the incremental content opportunities that provides for our company.
Although a lot has been said about the prospects for PEVs, the IC engine will be around for the foreseeable future. How do you see the powertrain market over the next 5 – 10 years?
Tim Jackson: The pure battery life of vehicles are chasing a moving target, because both the diesel engines and the gasoline engines will become more efficient, they will produce less carbon dioxide. In effect there is a bit of a convergence even between the gasoline and diesel engine technologies as we see gasoline engines heading to higher compression ratios and even some discussion of homogenous charge compression ignition engines greeting a convergence point in the future.
Again Tenneco is benefiting from this. For example, we are seeing more electronic content in the after-treatment system. We’ve got on display [at the IAA] our advanced electronic valve that has both. For example, when an engine uses cylinder deactivation where the engine might switch from a V8 to a four cylinder mode or from a V6 to a three cylinder mode in order to conserve fuel, that creates back pressure challenges and acoustic challenges, and our customers have increased the adoption of these electronic valves as a solution for that.
In a similar nature with the new cold start legislation there is increased consideration being given to active hydrocarbon traps, and every one of these traps will use an electronic valve to move between the storage mode and the regeneration mode.
Then finally for engines that use lean burn technology, whether they are compression ignition diesel engines or spark ignited gasoline engines that may use lean burn technology in the future, which is a clear path to increased gasoline engine efficiency, we’ve got on display our low pressure EGR valve which can provide a significant reduction in NOx emissions for any lean burn engine.
So the same trends that are causing the vehicle powertrain to become electrified are indeed causing our after-treatment systems to become electrified, and ultimately one of the really emerging technologies we’re displaying today is waste heat recovery. Here we’re partnered with Gentherm to develop semi-conductor devices that are assembled in a Tenneco-developed heat exchanger right after the catalytic converter. We are actually harvesting wasted exhaust heat which would normally go out the tail pipe and we’re turning it back into electricity which in turn can be put back into the vehicle powertrain to drive even higher efficiency levels. So again electrification of the vehicle. We don’t view it as a threat at Tenneco, we view it as an opportunity.
Powertrain-wise, what is Tenneco using this year’s IAA to highlight?
Tim Jackson: We continue to see a very strong penetration in Europe of diesels. We’re seeing increased penetration in North America, and this year, starting in 2014, I think North American consumers will have more diesel light vehicle powertrain choices than they’ve ever had in the past, and certainly create platforms from all the vehicle manufacturers are adding diesel engine options.
Two of the technologies that we’ve got on display [IAA] include our fabricated manifolds for diesel engines. Certainly, fabricated manifolds have had a place for some time in gasoline engine but now increasingly we’re finding that diesel engines present that same thermal management and mass reduction opportunity that the gasoline engines have enjoyed in the past. Our customers again are asking us, for the purpose of regenerating diesel particulate filters on these engines, to actually incorporate injection devices or vaporisers directly into the manifolds.
Traditionally post-injection or late injection events have been used inside the engine to create the excess of hydrocarbons to allow the thermal rise in order to regenerate actively the particulate filters. Now our customers are finding that’s actually done best external to the engine. Tenneco has two of those devices on display today and the result is reduced fuel consumption during a diesel particulate filter regeneration along with CO2 emission reduction, as well as a significantly reduced risk of oil dilution and engine wear.
For some time, we seen how carmakers have paid close attention to exhaust sound in order to maintain and enhance its “brand”. How do you set about supporting the carmakers achieve the right note?
Wolfgang Reuter: We have developed a new, very innovative technology. It’s our Tenneco software based signature sound system which can, using a digital signal processor, generate any engine sound you can think of. As a major differentiator to our competitors we can simulate this sound in real time with our digital signal processor. We can also use as the input signal engine speed and engine load, and therefore depending on engine speed and engine load we can generate these engine sounds. We achieve this by adding our sound to the original engine sound, so it’s a separate system working parallel to the conventional exhaust system and with that we can, for example, make a 4 cylinder sound like a V6 or a V8. Here, we can make it a very sportive sound or we can make it a moderate sound, whatever the customer prefers.
Could you give some examples where it’s been used?
The remainder of this interview is available on just-auto’s QUBE research service
