Public Funding for Emissions Analytics Limited

Tyre emissions are an under-estimated and increasing source of pollution from vehicles. Emissions Analytics has built international expertise in the area, and continues to innovate and build a long-term competitive position. Studies of tyre emissions mostly focus on the release of particles through abrasion with the road surface - but that is not the only pollutant from tyres. This project aims to link chemicals 'evaporating' from tyres to air pollution formation, which should enable the development of commercial tools for the industry to engineer less polluting tyres, and contribute to wider social and healthcare benefits. Currently, there is no standard method explicitly to measure this 'off-gassing' of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from tyres. Petrol/gasoline-powered vehicles are subject to an 'evaporative emissions' test in a climatic chamber as part of certification, but this focuses on evaporation from the fuel tank. As there is no standardised measure, the contribution of VOCs released from tyres is not generally factored into existing air quality models. This modelling gap is becoming an increasing problem because it may be leading to persistent air quality problems being incorrectly attributed to, for example, high nitrogen dioxide concentrations. At the same time, as vehicles are becoming bigger and heavier, so too are the tyres, and bigger tyres have a greater surface area and off-gas more VOCs. Therefore, there is a gap in knowledge and the available tools for industry and regulators to develop low-emitting tyre products. Emissions Analytics aims to fill this gap and further build its position in the market. If this challenge is successfully solved, two services would be launched. First, a standardised test methodology would be codified to allow validation of tyre products and benchmark competitive performance. It would also give a tool to manage reputational risk. Second, a software product would be developed to forecast ozone and aerosol formation at the fleet level, by modelling traffic flow and combining with the derived tyre emissions factors. Longer-term, by improving emissions inventories and developing a set of tools around tyre emissions, it would help authorities develop the best approaches to future regulation. This could lead to quality of life benefits, especially in cities, and mitigate the reduced life expectancy caused by pollution. Therefore, this project offers a combination of private profit opportunity and social benefit.

In recent years, tyre wear emissions have become a significant environmental concern, driven by factors such as vehicle electrification and research on the impact of tyre chemicals and microplastics on marine pollution. Emissions Analytics has developed successful methods, products, and services for testing individual vehicles and their tyres, but there remains a gap in our ability to model the impact of tyre wear emissions on the environment and transportation systems as a whole. This project would address outstanding measurement and modelling challenges that should result in a range of tools and services highly relevant to the ongoing discussions around the new 'Euro 7' vehicle regulation being negotiated in Europe. The proposed regualation of tyre wear emissions is a worldwide first, and may come into force from 2025\. Emissions Analytics has the opportunity of placing the UK at the forefront of work supporting the implementation of this regulation. Around that, a suite of modelling products and consultancy services should be launched.

With the on-going roll-out of electric vehicles, tyres and their associated emissions are potentially becoming the biggest source of pollution from motor vehicles, but measuring them is hard. It is an important area as tyres have been identified as potentially the largest source of microplastics in the ocean, as a result of run-off into water courses. Emissions Analytics has been leading the development of real-world test methodologies, both for tyre wear rates, but also to profile the chemical composition and potential toxicological effects of the wear on humans and the wider environment. Initial work on potential regulation is underway at the United Nations. Tyre wear is more complex to measure than other emissions, including tailpipe, because tyres are part of an open system, where material abraded from tyre is 'sprayed' into the environment, where it mixes with other material - brake wear, road wear, resuspended dust and pollution from other sources. The challenge, therefore, is to be able to take a sample from on or near a vehicle and being able to estimate with good accuracy the tyre wear material contained in it, separately from the non-tyre components. Each of those pollution sources has a different chemical fingerprint, or contains unique tracers that can help separate them from each other. Without such separation, while we can measure the material lost from a tyre, we cannot fully understand in what form it is shed and where it goes. Emissions Analytics has an existing capability to measure the organic constituents of tyre wear using an in-house state-of-the art chemical analysis, using which it has developed a tyre fingerprinting database for the potentially harmful carbon-containing compounds in tyres. It has also developed a patent-pending system for physically sampling tyre wear material on a vehicle as it drives around in the real world. Therefore, many of the components required are in place to address the problem, but additional analytical expertise in both sampling optimisation and source apportionment data analysis is needed to achieve a high quality, market-ready offering. Therefore, by addressing this sampling and measurement challenge, there is the potential to unlock private sector value together with a public value in addressing current and pre-empting future environmental challenges. For Emissions Analytics, it would form an additional element to its growing suite of tyre analysis services.

With the planned roll-out of electric vehicles, tyres, and their associated emissions, are potentially becoming the biggest source of pollution from motor vehicles, but these emissions are poorly understood. There is currently no standardised regulatory method for measuring the wear rates, the chemical composition of the abraded material or the ultimate toxicological effect on humans and the wider environment. This project aims to start addressing, and develop measurement methods for, the second unresolved part of this chain - measuring and characterising the chemical compounds in tyre wear, as it is created from vehicles in real-world operation. To achieve this, it is necessary not just to identify and quantify the wide range of compounds and elements in tyres, but also to understand the accuracy and repeatability of the measurements. If successful, it opens up the opportunity to be able to understand the environmental effects - encompassing air, water and soil - to a much greater extent than currently. This is important as tyres have been identified as one of the largest sources of microplastics in the ocean. As driving safety cannot be compromised by reducing grip, the best way to address this problem may be to change the composition of the tyre material rather than the rate of wear. As the light-duty vehicle fleet shifts to electrified cars and vans, average vehicle weight is set to increase significantly, which is likely to result in higher wear. Leveraging Emissions Analytics' existing capability to measure the organic constituents of tyre wear, the project will expand that to cover inorganic components and understanding measurement uncertainties. By addressing a measurement challenge, there is the potential to unlock private sector value together with public value in addressing current and pre-empting future environmental challenges.

Tyres are the rolling basis of all transport yet during use are a major but largely 'invisible' source of microplastic pollution affecting air, land and sea. The UK alone produces 530,000 tonnes of tyre waste a year, but before we even get to the discarded carcasses of old tyres each one will have shed at least a kilogram of weight in abraded particles mostly at the micro-level (<5mm). This is an enormous and overlooked problem for which there are currently no regulations and no consumer labelling. A further dimension of this problem is that it affects all future electric vehicles just as it affects the cars and other vehicles we are already familiar with. To assist the uptake of electric vehicles and the associated decarbonisation of the transport system, this project will develop a product that will collect, measure and characterise tyre emissions in real world conditions. The hardware is the basis also of a tyrewear methodology we will offer as a commercial service. The principle subcontractors for this product development are Staffordshire, UK company Alconbury Weston Ltd and Oxfordshire, UK company Scielutions Ltd., while the identified future customer for the product and service is London, UK-based company ENSO Ltd. The project lead is Emissions Analytics, UK-based experts in both exhaust and non-exhaust emissions. We have also identified a range of future customers, the immediate one being ENSO, a UK-based company that is developing better tyres and tyres as a service. Through ENSO we have potential future traction for a series of freight trial partners including DPD, Royal Mail and Gnewt; beyond it we have further interest from Geely and its principal brand Volvo and LEVC, which have committed to apply rigorous metrics to all components of future vehicles with a view to value retention and extended longevity. We believe that our product will materially contribute to accelerating the shift to low-carbon transportation by addressing one of the key hurdles to electric car adoption.

This 8-month project, commencing March 1st 2019, led by Vortex Developments 2014 Ltd, involves technology transfer from automotive to rail. The technology is a patented 'game changing' exhaust design that produces volumetric efficiency of combustion in the engine cylinders, and reduces fuel consumption as a result, as well as reducing diesel particulates because of improved exhaust gas scavenging. This technology reduces the carbon footprint of rail diesel engines as well as reducing diesel particulates by more than 50%. The exhaust design will allow for further development of a Vortex emissions reduction technology when this is required or requested. The development of the technology for Class 66 freight engines follows the development of a vortex exhaust for passenger Class 156 trains. In a live longitudinal test of a Class 156 train in service a 13.2% mean reduction in diesel was obtained in the back to back trial of the Vortex exhaust against the standard exhaust on the same train engine. The latter trial has given the technology a high Technology Readiness Level, and its next application will be on the 2-stroke Class 66 engines. The latter differ substantially from the Class 156 engines; they are more powerful, lower revving electric generator diesel and are 2-stroke rather than 4-stroke, which presents some challenges. The Class 66 exhaust system is also substantially larger than the Class 156, so construction materials will be stronger and the physical size substantially larger in diameter with the exhaust shorter in length. The Vortex exhaust will be constructed from stainless steel and the warranty will be life time, meaning 20-years. Design and flow calculations will be done with the support of Surrey University whose engineering department has considerable experience in this field, testing will be done with the support of SBL-Rail, a division of Westerton Agencies Ltd, who have substantial experience in testing engines in the automotive and rail sector. The vortex exhaust demonstrator after successful completion of load bank tests and then a six-month live test on a Deutsches Bahn UK Class 66 freight train of the standard versus Vortex exhaust, will go to the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry, and they will assist with manufacturing consultancy. Deutsches Bahn will be the first customer of this exhaust technology should it prove economically acceptible. In that case manufacturing will be carried out by Benson Components Ltd, an SME tier-1 producer for HGV and plant and machinery OEMs. The commercialisation will be undertaken by Unipart Rail, the commercial partner of Vortex Developments 2014 Ltd, and Vortex will work with the PR department of the RSSB to gauge public and rail sector interest in this technology, and disseminate data and information gained from this project. The manufactured product is planned for roll-out into the market within one-year of the project completion.

Poor air quality in populated areas is widely recognised as a national public health issue. In an attempt to combat this and reduce emissions in our cities, the UK Gov has allocated £101m for the creation of 6 ‘Clean Air Zones’ - designated areas where restrictions and charges can be placed on the most polluting vehicles. Original proposals contained plans for 16 CAZs however these plans were curtailed by the high cost of current ANPR technology and is a major barrier to any future voluntary adoption. We aim to address this by using telematics, GPS and geofence technology to create a low cost, integrated solution that can be rapidly deployed to improve air quality. The system will be able to track activity within the CAZ and a vehicle's emissions footprint, enabling the development of an emission based pricing model - penalising heavy polluters and incentivising low emission behaviours. Our system requires no heavy road infrastructure, no disruption and will integrate with local authority traffic and parking systems. Our initial findings suggest that we can reduce the capital cost of a CAZ system by >90% and running cost by >50%.

TRIUMPH is a demonstration and study of zero emission capable trucks and refrigeration units in urban environments. Refrigerated urban delivery is a key component of the modern food distribution network and temperature controlled transport is highly polluting in urban environments. Zero emission technologies provide a solution to urban air quality and can also reduce CO2 emissions. A limited evidence base exists to support the uptake of new innovative technologies in a commercial vehicle environment. This project will investigate three solutions to zero emission delivery in urban environments. 1) Fully electric vehicles (supplied by Magtec); 2) Range extended electric vehicles (supplied by Tevva). 3) Liquid nitrogen engine refrigeration units (supplied by Dearman). A detailed study of all three options will be undertaken. The project will also: develop real time environmental sensing, provided by EarthSense, which will inform the control strategy of range extended electric vehicles to provide zero emissions operation in areas of the poorest air quality; develop fleet telemetry systems for the trial vehicles; develop fleet advice software to inform roll out in the wider fleet community; and compare the emission, cost and technical performance to Euro VI diesel vehicles.

Reducing air pollutant (NOx and PM) and CO2 emissions on UK roads is increasing priority for UK government, retailers, HGV hauliers and the general public. HGVs account for 17% of all UK road transport emissions; but the opportunities to significantly reduce their emissions in the near future are limited. The Reduced Emissions Logistics (Red-E-Log) project offers an immediate solution in the use of liquid biomethane (LBM) burning engines for HGVs. By making use of biomethane (methane produced by bacteria feeding off waste streams) significant amounts of fossil fuel can be eliminated from UK roads. This means the total CO2 equivalent for LBM trucks is as much as 85% less when compared to a present day HGV running on diesel, making this a solution to reducing global CO2 emissions that we can implement today. Red-E-Log is a collaboration between Kuehne & Nagel (K&N), Microlise, Cenex and Emissions Analytics (EA) to deploy 29 of the latest generation (2017 and 2018) OEM warranted 44t duel fuel and Liquid Natural Gas articulated trucks. The project will deploy three state-of-art truck technologies that are not currently (October 2016) in use in the UK with a high-profile fleet, and promote the reintroduction of LBM into the UK market.

This project will trial 81 dedicated gas HGVs ranging from 7.5 tonne to 44 tonne which are new to the UK market. Four vehicle manufacturers will be trialled across ten different vehicle configurations, creating a wealth of valuable data on vehicle performance, fuel efficiency, reliability and cost. When using CNG/LNG, CO2e savings of up to 8% can be achieved, and biogas produced from waste will be introduced during the project, resulting in Well-To-Wheel CO2e savings of at least 70% compared to diesel. In addition five refrigeration units will use a prototype liquid nitrogen system, further reducing CO2e and air quality emissions. The vehicles will be trialled by five high profile transport operators across a range of different duty cycles, from urban to long haul. They will be supported by technical experts who will collate comprehensive data via telematics and portable emissions monitoring equipment, which will be fully analysed in order to quantify the potential benefits of dedicated gas technology compared to diesel. Two new state-of-the-art gas stations will be delivered as part of the project, in London and Birmingham, for which no funding is being sought, thus developing infra-structure that is needed to help reduce pollution from heavy transport, whilst keeping a low budget.

This project aims to demonstrate the concept of optimising the driving style of autonomous vehicles (AVs) for passenger ride comfort, vehicle emissions and fuel consumption, and journey time. The results of this project will evaluate the impacts of customers interacting with AVs to specify a driving style to suit their requirements (e.g. minimise travel time, or maximise comfort) on AV fuel consumption and emissions and on traffic at the network level using simulation methods. The collaboration between Emissions Analytics and the Centre for Transport Studies, Imperial College London, combines access to a range of vehicles for testing, expertise in vehicle emissions measurement, innovation in sensor development and expertise in the simulation of AVs. New measurements of ride comfort and emissions will be used to develop models that can be used in further simulations of passenger-AV interactions. As part of this project, a ride comfort sensor will be developed to independently measure vibrations so that standard ride comfort metrics can be calculated. The ride quality sensor developed in this project will also be used to detect road degradation for highways maintenance.

This project will monitor and evaluate the operational and environmental performance of 34 dual-fuel heavy goods vehicles, from a range of different manufacturers. A telematics system will be developed to provide real time mpg data and gas substitution rates and exhaust emissions will also be monitored using on-board emissions monitoring equipment, giving real world emissions data. The project will be supported by a new natural gas refuelling station at Swindon that will be accessible to third parties