The manufacturers of 2010 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emission-compliant heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines say their engines have been well received in the marketplace.

To comply with the EPA 2010 diesel emissions standards, the world’s most stringent, commercial truck and engine manufacturers settled on two types of emissions control technologies: selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). SCR allows the engine to be optimized for fuel efficiency and treats the engine exhaust downstream. EGR — also referred to as in-cylinder EGR and enhanced, advanced and massive EGR — reduces emissions in the engine cylinder.

The standards mandate emissions no greater than 0.2 grams per brake horsepower-hour (bhp-hr) for nitrogen oxide (NOx) and 0.01 gram/bhp-hr for particulate matter (PM). Both EGR and SCR technologies reduce NOx emissions. To decrease PM emissions, both systems employ diesel particulate filter technology.

Navistar International, with its MaxxForce engines for its International brand trucks, is the only heavy-duty truck company to offer an EGR solution for 2010 diesels. All others, including Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), Mack Trucks, Paccar and Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA), along with engine maker Cummins, have gone with SCR technology.

The number of 2010 EPA engines in the marketplace is relatively small, but orders for new EPA-compliant diesel trucks have been rising.

“We’ve been very deliberate in rolling out a slow launch for our 2010 EPA engines, which began in September 2009,” says Ed Saxman VTNA’s drivetrain product manager. “There are hundreds of production trucks with EPA 2010 technology in daily operation with customers and they’re reporting fuel savings, improved performance and excellent reliability. Our D11, D13 and D16 engines are getting fuel economy, which is a 5 percent increase over our 2007 engines, and those showed an improvement over previous engines.”

Mack Trucks began production on EPA 2010 engines in December and early data indicates improved fuel economy over the exact same spec in a pre-2010 configuration, says David McKenna, Mack Trucks’ director of powertrain sales and marketing.

DTNA is seeing “good response” to its Detroit Diesel BlueTec SCR emissions technology, says Mark Lampert, DTNA’s senior vice president of sales and marketing. Reports coming from current fleet customers and customer demo units equipped with Detroit Diesel’s DD13, DD15 and DD16 engines with BlueTec SCR “are meeting our expectations and consistently delivering up to a 5 percent fuel economy improvement over our 2007 engines. That is a payback of 2 to 4 cents per mile per truck, and it is providing both a payback on the equipment and a hedge against rising fuel prices,” he says.

Tim Shick, director of engine sales for Navistar International, says the company is seeing the kinds of fuel economy and performance it expected.

Navistar said its 2010 MaxxForce engines “deliver outstanding fuel economy, excellent power characteristics, and exceptionally smooth and quiet ride.”

Designed to meet the EPA 2010 emissions regulations, Paccar’s new 2010 MX engines are just starting to hit the marketplace. Introduced in February, installation began in heavy-duty North American Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks this summer.

The Cummins heavy-duty ISX15 is delivering 5 to 6 percent better fuel economy than its predecessor, the EPA 2007 ISX, says Christy Nycz, Cummins’ on-highway market communications department.

Driver training techniques and following manufacturer gearing recommendations also will help truck users maximize fuel efficiency of the new 2010 engines, as well as older engines, Nycz says. 

“To see these new engines come out with near zero emissions and be as clean as alternative fuels is nothing short of a major milestone,” says Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum. “The level of research and innovation that the engine and truck makers have done to get here is extraordinary. This accomplishment positions clean diesel as a technology for the future.”

He points out that clean diesel technology involves three pieces. One is low-sulfur diesel fuel — a cleaner-burning diesel fuel that contains 97 percent less sulfur than low-sulfur diesel and allows the use of improved pollution control devices that reduce diesel emissions more effectively. The other two pieces are low-emitting diesel engines and advanced emissions control devices.

There is also the element of leveraging programmable electronic features, Cummins’ Nycz says.

The “most extraordinary fact” is that heavy-duty on-highway diesel engine manufacturers have made dramatic strides in recent years in reducing emissions and, at the same time, increasing fuel efficiency, Mack Trucks’ McKenna says. Basically, these are competing forces in diesel engine design, he says.

“Clean Diesel is not a contradiction in terms,” McKenna says. “The amount of soot is completely invisible to the naked eye. The amount of NOx emitted is essentially zero, or as near to zero as 0.2 grams can be, 0.2 grams equals 0.000441 of a pound, [which is] not much at all.

“Couple the near zero exhaust emissions with a goodly 5 percent improved fuel economy, and we are ‘green’ in two ways,” McKenna continues. “We’re environmentally friendly, and we put green dollars back into the customer’s pocketbook with the lower fuel consumption savings.”  BI