Research on effective design of integration of fuel, exhaust aftertreatment, and modern gasoline direct injection engines in electrified vehicles.

The main research topic is based on the effective design and integration of fuel, exhaust aftertreatment systems and modern gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine operation for electrified vehicles. The effects of the engine operating condition (e.g. lean/rich) and fuel (e.g. gasoline, ethanol, butanol, gaseous fuels) on pollutant emissions (quantity and characteristics) and thus, on the aftertreatment system (three way catalysts and/or gasoline particle filters) will be assessed. The understanding of those effects will guide to propose efficient vehicle operation strategies and aftertreatment designs from the manufacturing and thermal point of view. Repsol which is a world leader energy company supports this work via a variety of mechanisms providing (i) £40k cash contribution (subject to the impact of COVID-19), (ii) personnel time for fuels characterisation and (iii) industrial technical guidance in the development of the technologies ensuring those are well aligned with industry. Test facilities useful for the project (engine, bespoken catalyst testing facilities, emissions analysers) and simulation tools (Ansys, AVL Boost and AVL Cruise) to carry out this project are available at UoB.