HMWPIB Technology Prevents NOx and PM

This video made by Shell Oil Company is a good animation of diesel engine combustion. Notice the yellow and orange areas in the cylinder representing the faster and slower burning fuel components. Note the black sooty residue (mostly PM) left in the cylinder following combustion. HMWPIB promotes uniform combustion,  avoiding the rapid heat release profile that produces NOx by degrading nitrogen in the air-fuel mixture.

Preventing Diesel Emissions: PM & NOx

How HMWPIB Prevents PM Emissions

How HMWPIB Prevents NOx Emissions

Eliminating the NOx-Fuel Economy Trade-off

Pyrolysis, heat-induced chemical decomposition, is responsible for the formation of the solid carbon particles that are the nucleus of the particulate emissions from a diesel engine. Pyrolysis occurs in an engine cylinder when there's insufficient oxygen for combustion but sufficient heat to cause fuel to decompose. By increasing the availability of oxygen throughout the air-fuel mixture in a diesel engine HMWPIB inhibits pyrolysis and reduces the production of PM emissions.

The superfine droplets in the spray from a diesel injector initiate combustion in the diesel cylinder. They burn with a very high rate of heat release, similar to an explosion. This high spike of heat at the beginning of combustion creates the temperature/time profile responsible for the decomposition of the nitrogen component of intake air. The HMWPIB technology eliminates superfine droplets in the diesel fuel spray. The early high rate of heat release and overall heat of combustion are reduced, inhibiting nitrogen decomposition. Efficient operation of diesel engines can be carried out without the production of NOx emissions.

Conventional wisdom has accepted the trade-off between fuel economy and production of NOx in a diesel engine. The standard approach to NOx reduction is to lower the temperature of the burn by recycling exhaust gas to reduce oxygen content of the intake air. While reducing NOx, this process also reduces fuel economy and increases emissions of particulate matter. By simultaneously reducing the rate of heat release at ignition and increasing combustion efficiency, HMWPIB eliminates the NOx-fuel economy trade-off. Both NOx and PM are reduced and fuel economy is increased.