Ulrich Quaade
Over the next two years, Amminex Emissions Technology will receive a total of 1.9 million euros from the EU research and development program Horizon 2020 to demonstrate that the company’s technology platform ASDS™ is capable of providing the foundation that regulators need to introduce an even stricter low emissions vehicle legislation after 2017
Horizon 2020 is the largest ever EU research and innovation program with nearly 80 billion euros of funding over seven years available to help European companies and universities achieve breakthroughs and discoveries by taking ideas from the lab to the market. As part of the extensive program, small- and medium-sized enterprises such as Amminex are encouraged to participate.
Amminex has received funding for a project through a so-called SME (Small Medium Enterprise) instrument designed specifically for innovative smaller companies in need of funding for product development.
From large to smaller diesel vehicles
The project objective is to develop and demonstrate that Amminex’ already commercial ASDS™ technology and components for buses and trucks can be adapted to work in small to medium sized engines in passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and vans. Special focus will be on the documentation of compliance with existing and future legislation, fuel savings, CO2 benefits and NO2 reduction. Both in an engine lab environment and in real driving conditions on the road.
“Over the last decades EU regulation of diesel emissions has been far less successful than originally envisaged by regulators, particularly regarding NOx emissions. More recently, the Euro 5 and the current Euro 6 standards, have led to some improvements. Still, regulators are not satisfied because a large share of the EU member states remain struggling to comply with required air quality limit values, ” says Ulrich Quaade, Head of R&D at Amminex.
An important reason is the fact that the EU regulatory test cycle is incapable of reproducing real-world driving. In practice, this means that although Euro 5 and Euro 6 diesel cars appear to have lower NOx emissions than those of Euro 3 and 4, their absolute emissions in real-world driving are in fact significantly higher.
“The test cycle underestimates real-world driving by a significant margin. Actually, research indicate factors of about four or even more depending on the route driven. This is why the EU is developing a more elaborate test procedure to ensure real-world emissions of Euro 6 light duty diesels and subsequent legislated levels will actually deliver the expected reductions, ” explains Ulrich Quaade.
Creating the foundation for future legislation
One of the concrete targets formulated in Horizon 2020, is to fund research that leads to new transport technologies able to comply with stricter post Euro 6 limits under real-world driving conditions while complying with future legislation on CO2 emissions. For the longer term, the vision is to establish a future super-low emission vehicles standard with emission targets that are ambitiously lower than the current Euro 6. Moreover, regulators are looking for an improvement in fuel consumption by 5% for diesel when compared to the best vehicles on the market in 2013.
According to Ulrich Quaade, Amminex is addressing these targets head-on in the research project:
“We have already developed and commercialized a retrofit system with ASDS™ technology, which has been demonstrated on city buses with great results. Based on this product, our goal is to develop and optimize the technology from a retrofit to a first-fit solution for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. We also want to quantify fuel savings compared to AdBlue®, the conventional NOx reduction technology and demonstrate full conformity to the upcoming RDE, Euro 6c standard scheduled for implementation in 2017/18. Both in the lab and on the road.”
About Amminex
Amminex Emissions Technology is a fast growing Danish clean-tech company. The company’s unique NOx reduction technology is based on a system for ammonia storage and delivery, known as ASDS™. The system reductant is ammonia bound in a solid named AdAmmine™ that significantly reduces the emissions of toxic NOx gasses from diesel exhaust. This technology is setting a new industry benchmark by enabling a significantly higher NOx reduction for buses, trucks and passenger cars than any other known technology. The technology already enables NOx emissions below future Euro 6 standard for real driving emissions (RDE).
Amminex is headquartered near Copenhagen, Denmark with a state-of-the-art volume production facility located in Nyborg, Denmark. The main shareholders of Amminex Emissions Technology are Faurecia (F), SEED Capital Denmark and Nordea-fonden (DK).
