Abstract
The most important challenge facing the diesel engine is the achievement of stringent NOx legislation. Meeting future European legislation will guarantee a future market, whilst compliance with USA Tier-2 Bin-5 will open up a major new market in North America. In addition, the diesel engine must maintain its CO2 advantage over the gasoline engine and continue to increase power density to enable down-sizing and to meet the growing consumer demand for high performance diesel cars. This paper outlines an approach which combines system elements to enable the diesel to meet these criteria. Based on the philosophy that emissions are best reduced at source, ACTION (Advanced Combustion Technology for Improvement in engine Out NOx) is being developed to apply to conventional diesel engines with minimum change-cost. ACTION uses a combination of advanced high pressure fuel injection equipment and enhanced air-handling systems. This combination results in a system which provides higher levels of cooler EGR for low NOx combustion and boost pressure ratios adequate for 70+kW/litre power density. This paper details the elements of the ACTION concept and tables preliminary multi-cylinder engine results with vehicle performance and emissions simulations.