The Log
18 November 2024: The 15th VERT Forum will be held on 27-28 March 2025 at the EMPA Akademie in Dübendorf, Switzerland. The event will cover a range of topics related to the measurement and control of ultrafine particle emissions from internal combustion engines and other sources. VERT Members attend for free and have full access to the recently released database of VERT scientific publications.
16 November 2024: The Technology Guide coverage of biomass-based diesel fuels has been updated and restructured. A new paper, Biomass-Based Diesel Fuels, includes a thoroughly updated section on the commercial status of biodiesel and renewable diesel fuels. Other papers that have been updated and/or edited for consistency include Alternative Fuels, Renewable Hydrocarbon Fuels, and Biodiesel—Mono Alkyl Esters.
13 November 2024: Next May, in about six months from now, the 31st CIMAC Congress will open its doors in Zurich, Switzerland. The Congress organizers released a preliminary program, which includes more than 240 presentations grouped in 12 topics. The registration is now open.
11 November 2024: Added summary of Chinese fuel consumption regulations for heavy-duty vehicles.
9 November 2024: The California Air Resources Board approved major updates to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), increasing the target to reduce the carbon intensity of California’s transportation fuel pool to 30% by 2030, and introducing a new target of 90% reduction by 2045 [more ...]
8 November 2024: Geely debuted the NordThor EM-i gasoline-electric PHEV drivetrain, claiming engine thermal efficiency of 46.5%. In the Galaxy Starship 7 EM-i PHEV model, fuel consumption values range from 3.75 L/100 km to 4.88 L/100 km, with a combined gasoline-electric range of 1,430 km reported in the media [more ...]
6 November 2024: MAN Energy Solutions has decided to discontinue its first Otto cycle, LNG dual-fuel engine, MAN B&W ME-GA, just three years after its launch, citing upcoming methane slip regulations [more ...]
30 October 2024: Updated summary of Chinese fuel consumption regulations for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
29 October 2024: The European Commission imposed definitive countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEV) from China for a period of five years [more ...]
26 October 2024: The European Council has formally adopted a directive setting updated air quality standards across the EU, effective from 2030. The revised standards are more closely aligned with the WHO 2005 air quality guidelines. Under the new directive, member states must also—for the first time—monitor ambient concentrations of ultrafine particles (UFP) through the measurement of particle number (PN) concentrations and particle size distributions (PSD) [more ...]
16 October 2024: The IEA’s World Energy Outlook report focuses on energy security risks from the escalating geopolitical tensions and conflicts. Some of the immediate effects of the global energy crisis had started to recede in 2023, but the risk of further disruptions is now very high, according to the IEA. As global electricity demand soars, the agency is also calling for greater investment in new energy systems, especially in electricity grids and energy storage.
14 October 2024: At last year’s COP28 conference in Dubai, countries pledged to collectively triple the world’s renewable energy capacity and double energy-saving efforts by 2030. Today, countries are on track for only half the renewable power growth required to meet the goal, according to an assessment report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The agency is calling for a dramatic surge in investment—reaching the COP28 targets requires a cumulative global investment of $31.5 trillion in renewables, grids, energy efficiency and related measures by 2030, according to IRENA.
7 October 2024: BP has abandoned a target to cut oil and gas output by 2030 as the company scales back its energy transition strategy to regain investor confidence, Reuters reports. Back in 2020, BP pledged to reduce oil and gas output by 40% by 2030, while rapidly growing renewables. Last year, BP scaled back the target to a 25% reduction. BP is now reportedly targeting several new investments in the Middle East and the Gulf of Mexico to increase oil and gas output.
4 October 2024: The European Commission’s proposal to impose duties on imports of electric vehicles from China has obtained the necessary support from EU Member States, which makes it increasingly more likely that the EU will finalize tariffs (“definitive countervailing duties”) of up to 45% on imports of Chinese-made BEVs. In the vote, 10 EU members (including Italy, France, and Poland) backed tariffs while 5 (including Germany and Hungary) voted against, with 12 abstentions. The current provisional duties were imposed from July 5 for a maximum period of four months.
3 October 2024: Global demand for natural gas is increasing at a stronger rate than in the recent years and is forecast to rise by more than 2.5% in 2024, according to the IEA’s Global Gas Security Review. Fast-growing markets in Asia account for a large amount of the increase. At the same time, new gas supplies coming to market in 2024 remain limited due to slow growth of LNG production. A key uncertainty ahead of the 2024-25 winter is the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine, with existing contracts set to expire at the end of 2024. This could mean an end to all piped gas deliveries to Europe from Russia through Ukraine. In turn, this would require higher LNG imports to Europe in 2025 and consequently lead to a tighter global gas balance.
2 October 2024: Nett Technologies updated their DieselNet presence with the current portfolio of emission control products and services.
26 September 2024: Updated Technology Guide paper on Environmental Effects of Emissions—the section on global warming now includes more discussion on the impacts of decreasing emissions of reflective aerosols such as sulfates, the global warming potential of NOx, and other updates.
23 September 2024: Emission standards: Added summary of Australian Light-Duty Vehicle CO2 Standards.
20 September 2024: Faced with declining EV sales, ACEA is calling on the European Commission for a relief for the 2025 CO2 emission targets [more ...]
17 September 2024: It is time to register for the MDEC Mining Vehicle Powertrain Conference (MVPC), previously called the Mining Diesel Emissions Conference, that will be held on October 22-23, 2024 in Sudbury, ON, Canada. It is also still possible to submit a presentation abstract for the meeting [more ...]
14 September 2024: The financial market for Brent crude oil is “net short” for the first time ever, with the majority of investors betting that oil prices will fall even further, according to market analysts. This market pessimism seems odd, as physical global oil inventories are falling at a rate of about a million barrels per day and the oil stocks in Cushing, OK have been on a declining trend since mid-May. What do the markets know that we don’t?
13 September 2024: Using a new, satellite-based measurement method of ethane concentrations, University of Minnesota researchers found that the Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico has the highest persistent ethane signals on the planet [more ...]
29 August 2024: The global economy will still require some 100 million barrels of oil in 2050, according to ExxonMobil Global Outlook. But this supply level cannot be taken for granted, as global oil production is naturally declining at a rate of about 15% per year (sic!), or nearly double the IEA’s prior estimates of about 8% [more ...]
28 August 2024: Fuel regulations: Updated summaries of US Certification Fuels and EU Reference Fuels.
26 August 2024: Greenhouse gas concentrations, the global temperature across land and the ocean, and ocean heat content all reached record highs in 2023, according to the 34th annual State of the Climate report [more ...]
Engines & Emissions | Our Credo
The internal combustion engine (ICE) has been a key prime mover that largely replaced earlier prime movers of lesser efficiency—human labor, animal work, the water wheel, the windmill, and the steam engine—thus enabling modern industrial civilization. The most efficient type of ICE, the diesel engine, has been widely used in heavy trucks, construction and agricultural machinery, rail locomotives, ships, and emergency power generation. Its gasoline counterpart has been common in passenger cars. Another related power plant, the gas turbine, has been powering commercial aviation.
For many years, engine developers have been striving to make engines cleaner. Following the three-way catalyst for gasoline engines, clean diesel technologies that enabled near-zero emissions of PM and NOx were developed and introduced in many regions of the world. The focus in technology development has then shifted to climate change and energy efficiency. The benefit of low CO2 emissions, traditionally associated with the diesel engine, is no longer sufficient to meet GHG and fuel economy regulations. New technologies are being developed—such as new combustion techniques, powertrain electrification, and waste heat recovery—that further increase the efficiency not only of the engine itself, but of the entire vehicle. Critically, as GHG emissions occur at all stages of vehicle life, from manufacture through disposal, low-carbon policies must consider life cycle effects of fuels and vehicles.
A major challenge ahead is the approaching end of the Oil Age—not only due to climate policies, but for economic reasons stemming from the depletion of easily recoverable oil resources. As fossil fuels are replaced by alternatives of lesser energetic quality, the future of mobility remains largely unknown. While the world aims to embrace more sustainable mobility, most alternative powertrain technologies depend on quantities of rare and nonrenewable natural resources, and therefore are not truly sustainable. Another often suggested approach—that of fueling the ICE by low-carbon e-fuels—suffers from low efficiency and would require substantial amounts of energy, which seems problematic in an economy that no longer has access to cheap and abundant fossil energy. All this suggests that future mobility will be based on a mix of powertrain technologies, where combustion engines continue to play an important role.