Sizing a conventional diesel oxidation catalyst to be used for RCCI combustion under real driving conditions

Reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion has demonstrated to be able to avoid the NOx-soot trade-off appearing during conventional diesel combustion (CDC), with similar or better thermal efficiency than CDC under a wide variety of engine platforms. However, a major challenge of this concept comes from the high hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emission levels, which are orders of magnitude greater than CDC, and similar to those of port fuel injected (PFI) gasoline engines. The high HC and CO emissions levels combined with the low exhaust temperatures during RCCI operation could present a challenge for the current exhaust aftertreatment technologies. The objective of this work is to evaluate the potential of a conventional diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) for light-duty diesel engines when operating under dual-fuel RCCI diesel-gasoline combustion and to define its necessary size to accomplish with the current emissions standards. For this purpose, a 1-D model has been developed and calibrated through gas emissions measurements upstream and downstream the DOC under different engine steady-state conditions. After that, the DOC response in transient conditions has been evaluated by means of vehicle systems simulations under different driving cycles representative of the homologation procedures currently in force around the world. The results show that the HC and CO levels at the DOC outlet are unacceptable considering the different emissions regulations. By this reason, a dedicated study to define the DOC size needed to accomplish the different emissions standards is carried out. The results suggest that, the DOC volume needed to fulfill the type approval regulation limits ranges from four to six times the original volume.