Development and demonstration of cost affordable and adaptable retrofit solutions for tailpipe and brake polluting emissions

The impact of transport on air and water quality has been repeatedly found to be due to tailpipe emissions from older vehicles, vehicles exceeding emissions limits in real driving conditions, or by vehicles, which, by not being subjected to specific limits, have high emissions of certain pollutants (e.g. ammonia-fuelled vehicles which emit a high number of particulates).Considering that the current automobile fleet in Europe is unlikely to be significantly renewed within the next 10 years, the proposed research actions should address emissions of nanoparticles from indirect injection (i.e. conventional) gasoline and natural gas engines or Pre-Euro 6 c direct injection gasoline cars that will continue to occur for the next couple of years. In all these cases, when the vehicles are sufficiently recent and therefore not candidates for scrapping, the proposed actions on retrofit technologies should aim at reducing real emissions at a relatively low cost, thus providing an early improvement of air quality without waiting for the vehicles to be replaced (or exported to other markets, thus just shifting the pollution to poorer countries).

The Horizon Prize for the Cleanest Engine retrofit has already demonstrated very high NOx reduction performance on a high emitting Euro 5 diesel, and one of the participants has brought a product on the market, while at the moment no solution is present on the market for ammonia and particulates by vehicle categories not fitted with particle filters (natural gas cars, trucks and buses, gasoline cars). Therefore, the proposed actions should demonstrate in the field the results of deploying available retrofits, in particular to public and private fleets running high numbers of kilometres within the city (buses, delivery vans, taxis), as well as developing and demonstrating new, low cost retrofit technologies for natural gas buses and natural gas and gasoline cars in the above mentioned applications, with a clear validation in real driving of the reduction of emissions. The proposed actions should also consider awareness raising of little known emissions issues (for instance, ammonia and nanoparticles below the regulated threshold) and specific incentive schemes to facilitate the adoption of these technologies should also be considered, taking into account the results of the currently running EU-funded projects on retrofits.

In addition to tailpipe particles, there is a growing awareness of the contribution by tires and brakes from road and rail vehicles. Brakes, different from tires, have the potential to emit large amounts of very fine particles and these can include harmful materials like heavy metals and resins. Moreover, they contribute to poor local air and water quality in specific and sometimes closed environments like bus stops, tunnels and train and metro stations. Therefore, the proposed activities should assess the specific contribution of brake particles on local air and water quality, possibly including citizen science contributions, for instance to assess the situation of complete network of metro and rail stations in cities or workers exposure, and to develop low cost retrofit solutions for these transport vehicles and demonstrate existing solution in the field to assess their benefit and usability/operating costs, while at the same time reducing the acquisition and installation costs, both for first installation and retrofitting (specifically on long-lived public transport assets).

In some specific cases, like urban heavy duty vehicles and rail rolling stock, noise is also an issue, therefore the retrofit solutions for these applications should also look at reducing exhaust noise, particularly during transients, while low particle emissions brake solutions should also look at integrating ways to reduce brake noise.

In line with the Union’s strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation, international cooperation is encouraged.

Typically, projects should have a duration of 36 to 48 months. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts or durations.