Particle Emissions

from Direct Injection

Gasoline Engines
A team of SwRI engineers
examines how emissions
systems and engine
technologies can affect the
mass, numbers and average
D018103

sizes of exhaust particles

from gasoline engines

In a gasoline
direct-injection engine,
an injector introduces
fuel directly into the
combustion chamber.
By Imad Khalek, Ph.D.
D018098

T
he search for lower fuel con-
sumption and reduced exhaust
emissions in gasoline engines has
led to great successes through
the application of technologies such as
exhaust gas recirculation, turbocharging
and sophisticated fuel injection systems.
Gasoline engines, however, are the
subject of new regulations that will lower
the allowable limit of particle mass
emissions in the United States, and
particle mass and number in the
European Union.
A team of engineers at Southwest
Research Institute (SwRI), using inter-
nally and externally funded research, has
examined how various emissions systems
and engine technologies can affect the
mass, numbers and average sizes of these
particles.
Fuel injection strategies
Most gasoline engines in the world’s
current vehicle fleet use multi-port fuel
injection (MPI) systems, where fuel is
injected into intake ports outside the
combustion chamber during the intake
stroke as the air moves into the combus-
tion chamber. The quantity of injected fuel
is calibrated toward complete, or stoichio-
metric, combustion so that the exhaust
three-way-catalyst operates at optimum
efficiency in reducing harmful gases in
compliance with emissions regulations.
Vehicles with gasoline direct-injection
engines is projected to grow to about
50 percent of the U.S. fleet by 2016.
Better fuel economy and lower emis-
sions of greenhouse gases such as carbon
dioxide (CO2 ) have been achieved with
the introduction of gasoline direct injec-
tion (GDI) fuel systems. GDI engines
use a system similar to that of the diesel
engine but at a much lower pressure,
wherein fuel is injected directly into the
combustion chamber during the intake
stroke via a fuel injector tip inside the
chamber near the spark plug. This injec-
tion strategy offers more flexibility and

6 Technology Today • Summer 2011


accuracy in fuel injection, leading to
improved thermal efficiency and fuel
economy as well as lower greenhouse
gas emissions compared to MPI engines.
With this improvement, GDI technol-
ogy could be adopted for about half of
new gasoline vehicles sold in the United
States by 2016, according to some
estimates.
However, GDI also results in higher
particle emissions, mainly due to limited
mixing of fuel and air within the combus-
tion chamber. This limitation can lead
to fuel-to-air enrichment near the spark
plug, reduced droplet evaporation and
wetting of the combustion chamber
wall with injected fuel. By contrast, the
older-style MPI engines pre-mix fuel with
air to introduce a homogenous mixture
into the combustion chamber before
the combustion event is initiated by the
spark plug. This leads to nearly soot-free
combustion in most modern engines.
Recognizing the potential for
increased particle emissions from gaso-
line engines, the California Air Resources
Board (CARB) proposed new LEV III regu-
lations targeting a reduction in particle
emissions starting in 2014. The proposed
regulations included an optional regula-
tion of the numbers of solid particles
in addition to particle-mass regulations
that have been historically used in the
regulatory environment. However, CARB
recently changed the proposed imple-
mentation date for LEV III regulations to
2017. Furthermore, it dropped the option-
al solid particle number regulation as a
topic for future discussion with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
CARB LEV III regulations progressively
reduce the mass limit for particle emis-
sions from the current level of 10 milli-
grams per mile (mg/mi) to a potential
1 mg/mi by 2025 (although such a limit
may be below measurement capability).
Parallel to CARB, EPA is working on
Tier 3 regulations that will include more
stringent particle mass emissions, likely
similar to that of LEV III. In the European
Union, the Euro 6 regulations include a
particle mass emission limit of 4.5 mg/km
(~7.2 mg/mi), but will also include a more
stringent solid-particle number emission
limit that is still under consideration.
If GDI engines are treated like the
diesel engines that they resemble, the
limit would be 6 x 1011 particles per kilo-
meter. This limit would make it difficult
for the GDI to meet emission regulations
without the use of a particle filter in
the exhaust, as is the case with current-
technology diesel vehicles. Such particle
number enforcement would also slow
the penetration of GDI engines into the
vehicle fleet.
Technology Today • Summer 2011
D018080-7757
Dr. Imad A. Khalek is a
program manager in the
Engine, Emissions and Vehicle
Research Division. He is an
expert in particle emissions
from internal combustion
engines and has investigated
the influence of engine
stabilization, exhaust catalysts
and filters (traps), dilution
systems and dilution variables,
and alternative fuels on particle
size distribution and number
emission measurements. He
is the founder of the division’s
nanoparticle laboratory.
Fuel property effects
An important issue is
the effect of fuel proper-
ties on particle emissions
from GDI engines. Recent
work by the team of SwRI
researchers showed that fuel properties
of commercially available gasolines can
have a great impact on particle emissions
of GDI engines. For example, high-vola-
tility fuel (based on ASTM D86 method)
having carbon numbers of 10 or less can
result in reduction of particle emissions
by more than 75 percent. By comparison,
the work showed that oxygenated fuel,
such as an E10 ethanol blend, may not
result in particle reduction, mainly due to
baseline fuel properies that exhibit low
volatility with an increased level of dou-
ble-bond compounds. This indicates that
the baseline fuel property used in etha-
nol blends can influence the reduction of
particle emissions. The SwRI team’s work
also identified three potential key areas
– cold-start operations, hard accelera-
tion and hard acceleration to high speed
– where GDI engines may need to be
improved to reduce particle emissions.
Precise fuel control and good fuel-mixing
strategies could reduce the impact of
these events on particle emissions.
The particles emitted from GDI
engines are mainly comprised of soot or
elemental carbon. Their size distribution
is very similar to that of old-technology
on-highway diesel engines; typically with
a mean diameter distribution between
50 nm and 100 nm, with sizes ranging
between 5 nm and 300 nm. A comparison
7
 D018099
The California Air Resources Board’s proposed
new regulations target a reduction in particle
emissions starting in 2017.
of particle size distribution between 2009
and 2010 GDI vehicle technology under
cold-start operation, using the same fuel,
indicated that vehicle technologies can
have a wide range of particle emissions
even though they can meet the particle
emission standard.
Exhaust gas recirculation effect
SwRI manages an active High Efficien-
cy Dilute Gasoline Engine (HEDGE®) con-
sortium, where exhaust gas recirculation
(EGR), high turbo-boost and long-duration
ignition systems are used to improve gaso-
line engine efficiency and fuel economy,
as well as providing a substantial reduc-
tion in oxides of nitrogen (NOX) emissions.
Parallel to this work, the SwRI team’s inter-
nally funded research examined the effect
D018101
Fuel A: E0 gasoline, more volatile than
sample with 10 percent ethanol
Fuel B: E0 gasoline, most volatile sample.
Fuel C: E10 gasoline (10 percent ethanol),
least volatile sample.
8 Technology Today • Summer 2011
of EGR on exhaust particle emissions
from a GDI engine that had been
modified with a multi-stage boosting
system and a long-duration ignition
system to accommodate ignition
under a high level of EGR.
EGR resulted in a substantial
reduction in soot mass emissions,
and to a lesser extent in solid particle
number emissions, at stoichiometric
operation. EGR also reduced soot
mass emissions even under fuel
enrichment, and to a lesser extent,
solid particle numbers. While this
showed the benefit of EGR relative
to particle reduction, it also high-
lighted a paradoxical implication in
soot emission control from modern
GDI engines: While soot formation
can be suppressed with EGR due to
low-temperature combustion, there
may not be a similar reduction in solid
particle numbers. Also, the trend in
particle emissions as a function of
engine speed or fuel enrichment can
be opposite between mass and num-
ber. In some cases, the volume or mass-
weighted size distribution of particles
was reduced with EGR while the num-
ber-weighted size distribution simply
shifted to a smaller size range. In other
words, the more substantial the mass
reduction, the smaller the particles
became. At high fuel enrichment,
EGR achieved a 90 percent reduc-
tion in soot mass, but the number
of particles changed only slightly as
their mean size shifted from 40 nm
to about 15 nm. While these small
particles are below current EU solid
particle number regulations that
focus on particles larger than 23 nm,
this highlights the importance of the
sub-23 nm size range in future con-
sideration. It also highlights some
of the challenges that can face the
industry in meeting both soot mass
and number regulations with engine
control strategies.
Comparative solid particle number profile
for a 2009 model GDI vehicle using three
types of fuel with varying volatility (ASTM
86) and double-bond species. A similar
trend is observed for soot mass.
 D018102

Adding EGR under stoichiometric and/or rich

combustion greatly reduces the mass of particle
emissions, but sometimes it leads to the pres-
ence of smaller particles in approximately the
same numbers.

the vehicle’s useful life. SwRI’s aftertreat-

ment and particle science and technology
sections can help clients develop filters
from small-scale prototype size to produc-
tion size.
The application of exhaust filters to
diesel or gasoline vehicles would require
a particle sensor in engine exhaust for
onboard diagnostic (OBD) purposes. The
sensor would trigger a fault when particle
emissions exceed a certain threshold.
Having an accurate and durable particle
sensor is critical to the success of OBD.
Effect of particle filters on emissions SwRI recently launched a Particle Sensor
Performance and Durability consortium to
One way to control particle emissions for diesel vehicles to meet Euro 6, and investigate the potential accuracy and dura-
from engines is to use a particle filter in 98 percent will be needed to have a 50 bility of commercially available particle sen-
the exhaust. High-efficiency filters have percent safety margin by being at 50 sors. The consortium will help the industry
been used in all post-2007 highway heavy- percent below the number standard. understand what the sensors are capable
duty and light-duty diesel engines. They For GDI vehicles, there is a wide range of measuring and how accurately they can
provide a substantial reduction in soot of efficiency requirements, depend- measure it. Sensors, if well investigated,
mass and number, whereby they meet ing on vehicle technology, but the can be used for OBD as well as for online
a very stringent Euro 6/VI emission limit efficiency required is less than that for particle emission control from vehicles and
on solid particle number, which is much diesel engines. Thus, this can provide engines.
more stringent than the standard for par- an opportunity for designing filters in
ticle mass. They are also very effective in such a way as to reduce pressure drop Questions about this article? Contact
removing and retaining lube-oil derived and decrease the number of regenera- Khalek at (210) 522-2536 or imad.abdul-
ash present in engine exhaust. As part of tion (cleaning) events needed during khalek@swri.org.
an internally funded research activity, the
SwRI team used an exhaust particle filter D018100
to investigate its effectiveness in remov-
ing particles from the exhaust of a GDI
engine. Substantial reduction in soot was
observed. This reduction would put the
GDI engine technology on an equal foot-
ing to that of a highway diesel engine,
relative to particle emissions. However,
putting a filter in the exhaust of a GDI
production vehicle will require additional
research to address issues related to filter
cleaning and regeneration, ash accumula-
tion and durability. SwRI has very active
research work in this area, where solu-
tions can be provided to engine original
equipment manufacturers if they elect to
pursue this route.
While current exhaust filtration tech-
nology is highly efficient, the requirement
for GDI engines to meet future particle
emissions standards may not be as strin-
gent as that for diesels. The SwRI research-
ers projected that a filtration efficiency Projected solid particle number emissions show comparisons between conventional gasoline
of better than 92 percent will be needed engines and GDI engines, and highway diesel engines with and without exhaust particle filters.

Technology Today • Summer 2011 9