CRADA Final Report: Mechanisms of Sulfur Poisoning of NOx Adsorber Materials

This annual report will review progress of the initial 4 months of a three-year effort between Cummins Engine Company and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to understand and improve the performance and sulfur tolerance of the materials used in the NOx adsorber after-treatment technology in order to meet both performance and reliability standards required for diesel engines. The goal of this project is to enable NOx after-treatment technologies that will meet both EPA 2007 emission standards and customer cost, reliability and durability requirements. The project will consist of three phases. First, the efforts will focus on understanding the current limitation of capture, regeneration and durability of existing NOx adsorber materials, especially with respect to their sulfur tolerance. With this developing understanding, efforts will also be focused on the optimization of the NOx absorber chemical and material properties to increase performance and durability over many regeneration cycles. We anticipate that improved materials will be tested and evaluated, in partnership with Cummins, on diesel vehicle engines over expected operating conditions.