Detroit Diesel announces 2007 technology

March 12, 2004
Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) will use exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and diesel particulate filters on its heavy-duty engines to meet the EPA's 2007

Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) will use exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and diesel particulate filters on its heavy-duty engines to meet the EPA's 2007 emission requirements. This decision was reached after months of evaluation of all available technologies.

EGR will be used on the DDC Series 60 and the Mercedes-Benz engines marketed by the company. A new heavy-duty engine being developed by DDC and parent company DaimlerChrysler, scheduled for release in 2007, will also employ EGR and diesel particulate filters for North American applications.

"Detroit Diesel Corporation supports the goal of reduced emissions for heavy-duty trucks and intends to deliver engines that meet the 2007 regulations while providing the greatest possible overall performance and benefits for our customers," said Carsten Reinhardt, President and CEO of Detroit Diesel Corporation.

DDC has extensive experience with EGR. The company has built over 40,000 Series 60 engines with EGR, and the 2004 Mercedes-Benz engines are also equipped with EGR. These engines have performed well in their estimated 2.5 billion miles of service since October 2002. Detroit Diesel also has utilized EGR technology in bus engines since 2000. By 2007, there will be approximately 300,000 Detroit Diesel and Mercedes-Benz engines operating in North America utilizing EGR technology.

"EGR is a technology that is very well known to us and increasingly familiar to our North American heavy- and medium-duty truck customers," Reinhardt said.

EGR works by circulating cooled exhaust gas back into the engine air intake. This lowers combustion temperature and reduces the formation of NOx.

The 2007 EPA requirements call for more than a 50 percent reduction in NOx emissions and a 90 percent reduction in particulate matter. Detroit Diesel will use advanced EGR technology to achieve the required NOx reductions in 2007. DDC and all other manufacturers will use diesel particulate filters to meet the new PM standard.

Reinhardt said 2007 EGR engines are already in development, and the company intends to operate vehicles with the 2007 engines by the end of this year.

DDC chose EGR after an intense study of all available emissions reduction technologies.

"As part of the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the world, Detroit Diesel was in a position to choose from a range of technologies, including selective catalytic reduction (SCR)," Reinhardt explained. "While we believe SCR is a viable alternative for 2010, we ultimately selected EGR for 2007 because of the system's greater familiarity with our customers and its ease of deployment."