Emissions Testing:2002 Golf TDI
From VO Wiki
On 19 Jan 2007, Albuquerque Alternative Energies (AAE), Plantdrive and VO Control Systems conducted emissions testing at the EPA certified lab at the National Center for Vehicle Emissions Control and Safety (NCVECS) located at Colorado State University .
Tested was a 2002 Volkswagen Golf TDI modified by AAE with a vegetable oil fuel system supplied by PlantDrive and VO Control. This system was able to produce emissions levels well below the acceptable EPA standards for this vehicle on both ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) and straight Canola oil.
The tests were conducted on an I/M 240 in conjunction with a chassis dynamometer.
Three tests were run on ULSD to establish the base line for the vehicle. Another three tests were run on Canola oil, which the lab labeled V100.
As the graph shows, the burning straight Canola oil though the PlantDrive/VO Control Systems kit showed decreases in emissions over the entire spectrum analyzed.
The result of this work verifies that a properly converted modern automotive diesel can be fueled by vegetable oil and meet or exceed the requirements of the EPA emission standards, giving better results than ULSD diesel fuel from a renewable fuel.
Description of Tests by Kevin Forrest (AAE)
I was contacted by the EPA certified lab at Colorado State University located in Ft. Collins, CO after I had inquired about having tests done on an SVO vehicle. When I contacted them they said that they were quite sure that SVO could not be burned cleanly, and they had tested a converted Mercedes (system will remain nameless) that failed miserably and only got the VO to 110F, but they were more than happy to test a car if I paid for it. About 1 month after I contacted them they called me up and had gotten some grant money and they wanted to confirm the results that they gotten with the converted Mercedes. I immediately got in touch with Craig and Ray. Ray gave me a controller and Ed/Craig bought a VAG-COM. I supplied the conversion, trailer, truck, and time to go up and do the test.
After we got there they strapped the VW to a dyno and the tech ran six tests, 3 on ULSD and 3 on Canola. He did not view any test results until all of the tests were finished so he did not have any bias during the 6 different runs.
The grant paid for the $3000 test and the lab was happy to report that the Mercedes with the other kit was just a poorly designed system and that they saw no issues with this vehicle as far as emissions were concerned.
The particulate matter showed zero because both fuels did not deposit enough particulate to register. Good on VW for building such a clean engine. This engine does have a CAT which no doubt helped with this.
This was the same engine that was tested by the DFT (British DOT). There engine showed very poor emissions. The reason for this was there system was not controlled by a computer. This VW engine has a fuel density sensor inside the IP and the ECU adjusts timing according to fuel density. If you get the fuel to hot it will retard the timing and cause carbon emission to go way up. If the fuel is too cold it does not atomoize properly and carbon emissions go through the roof.
Simply stated a system must be capable of not only getting the fuel hot enough, but then controlling the temperature to ensure that it does not exceed the operating parameters of the ECU. This cannot be done very will with a coolant only system as the engine coolant is a fixed temperature and only has a certain amount of heat potential. Using an electric heater to fine tune the fuel temperature we were able to keep the fuel within a 2 degree band (thanks to the VO control) allowing the fuel to be at the top end of the ECUs density/timing map, but not going over. This gave us the highest temp for the best atomization, but kept the engine operating in parameter. This vehicle had approx 60K miles on it and only had regular maintenance performed.
We did not replace/clean the injectors. It had 15,000 VO miles on it before we installed the VO control. This was a very good representation of a vehicle in the middle of its' useful lifespan and a decent amount of VO mileage on it before the test.
We did not test B100 as it almost always blows the NOx level and the fuel mileage is not as favorable as SVO.
Low tech systems will not ever pass an EPA certification. Not only because they generally do not possess the heat potential to rapidly increase the SVO temp, but do not have the control mechanism to maintain it at a specific level. Human involvement in the operation of the system will also be a no go as humans are inaccurate and switch over will be mandated to be at the same time every time. Not purging the engine will not be allowed either as it will yield unpredictable emissions.
Hope this clears up some of the ambiguity.
Regards,
Kevin
www.abqaltenergies.com
Test Specifics
Vehicle:
- 2002 VW Golf TDI
Conversion components:
- Vormax
- Vegtherm
- Hotfox
- VO Controller
Testing Facility/Equipment:
- National Center for Vehicle Emissions Control and Safety located at Colorado State University (NCVECS)
- I/M 240 & chassis dynamometer
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