Auto-calibration for efficient diesel engines with a waste heat recovery system

This work focuses on auto-calibration of diesel engines with Waste Heat Recovery systems. Using an integrated control fashion, the objective is to optimize on-line the complete powertrain by minimizing the total operational costs, associated with fuel and AdBlue consumption, for minimum CO2 emissions. This chapter gives an overview of the challenges and state-of-the-art in automotive Waste Heat Recovery systems. Furthermore, it presents the main contributions and methodologies used in this thesis. 1.1 Drivers & challenges for diesel trucks Despite diminishing fossil fuel resources and rising environmental impacts, the global energy consumption is still growing [1]. This brings challenges to the society, since the unwanted byproducts from industrial processes, such as greenhouse gases, lead to global warming and climate change. Fig. 1.1 shows the world energy consumption over the last 25 years. Consumption increased for all fuels, reaching record levels for every fuel type except nuclear power. As the world population continues to grow, the demand for energy and their environmental impacts will grow consequently. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the transportation sector accounts for 27% of energy use worldwide. Around 94% of that energy comes from oil, from which the largest part is used in road transport, i.e., 60% by light vehicles (gross vehicle weight of not more than 3.5 tonnes) and 22% by trucks. Around 6% of the global CO2 emissions are coming from trucks [2]. At the same time, the CO2 emissions are in strong connection with the fuel consumption, which accounts for over one-third of the total truck operational costs. Although modern trucks