The sustainable engine; towards a provider of power and torque with zero resulting environmental impact

Authors

T. Johannesson, J. P. Dudley, M. Laurell - Aurobay

Summary

Aurobay has designed a demonstrator engine to significantly minimize the resulting harm to the surrounding ecosystem, throughout the complete life cycle.

Renewable gasoline, produced from waste products, can achieve a net GHG reduction of 65% from use of the engine. Lubricant base-oil lifetime is extended by closed loop recycling.

Already in current production 44% of the Aurobay base engine contains more than 96% recycled material. Additionally it has been shown by physical validation that also parts with higher manufcaturing requirements, such as the cylinder head and the intake manifold, can be manufactured by recycled material as well. Secondary aluminum and PA66 were used respectively, resulting in a ~50% reduction in manufacturing GHG footprint.

A novel aftertreatment system has been designed with auxiliary air, electric heated catalysts, three-way catalysts, hydrocarbon trap and gasoline particulate filter to achieve extremely low emission levels by quick catalyst heat-up. Pre-heating of specific engine components has also been shown to significantly reduce PN and HC emissions.

Integrated into the appropriate driveline, such an engine can achieve comparable life cycle GHG emissions to an equivalent battery-electric configuration.