Advances in emission control of diesel vehicles in China

Diesel vehicles have caused serious environmental problems in China. Hence, the Chinese government has launched serious actions against air pollution and imposed more stringent regulations on diesel vehicle emissions in the latest China VI standard. To fulfill this stringent legislation, two major technical routes, including the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and high-efficiency selective catalytic reduction (SCR) routes, have been developed for diesel engines. Moreover, complicated aftertreatment technologies have also been developed, including use of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) for controlling carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions, diesel particulate filter (DPF) for particle mass (PM) emission control, SCR for the control of NOx emission, and an ammonia slip catalyst (ASC) for the control of unreacted NH₃. Due to the stringent requirements of the China VI standard, the aftertreatment system needs to be more deeply integrated with the engine system. In the future, aftertreatment technologies will need further upgrades to fulfill the requirements of the near-zero emission target for diesel vehicles.