HDDF TF progress report (GFV-21-03) (PowerPoint presentation) (Mr. Renaudin.)

Amendments to rev. 6 of Regulation 49 (Euro VI) drafting work has been finalized and submitted to GRPE. Four complementing informal documents have been submitted.

Amendments to rev.5 of Regulation 49 (Euro V) have not made progress since January 2012 and will be delayed by 1 year. The current plan is to submit an informal document by January 2013 GRPE; formal document in June 2013 with final amendments submitted in November 2013 WP29.

Amendments to the main body of R.49 (rev.6) were identified (Please refer to GFV-21-03). Also there will be allowances for the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in order to have fuel-specific type approval of these engines.

Amendments were made to the existing Annexes of R.49 (rev.6) for Annexes 1, 2A, 2C, 3,4,5, and 9B.

Introduction of the dual-fuel dedicated Annex 15 of Regulation 49 (rev.6) includes a list of specific dual-fuel items ranging from definitions, family concepts, operational requirements, emissions, and various calculations (please refer to GFV-21-03).

Annex 4 corrections were made to some equations to align them on the ISO convention related to separators in numbers to avoid substantial errors; decimals and commas used as separators (European vs. Anglo-American style). No separator or space to express ‘thousands’ and a comma used as a decimal separator.

Mr. Renaudin asked for a GFV recommendation to be made to limit the risk of real errors by forbidding the use of a comma being used as a ‘thousands’ separator and by correcting R.49 and GTR 4 accordingly. It is agreed in principle that all the documents should be harmonized in line with the ISO guidelines 81/78. There will be consistency in GFV documents using a comma as a normal separator and address the point in GRPE that there are different usages in other regulations and that these should be harmonized. Dots are to be used as decimal separators and commas are basically recommended to be forbidden as a ‘thousands’ separator. R.49 will need to have the commas deleted as thousand separators.

Mr. Radzimirski (Poland) suggested that this be discussed with the GRPE Secretariat as well.

Annex 15-Calculation of exhaust emissions. Due to difficulties to determine the instantaneous gas/fuel ratio the calculation methods described in Annex 4 have been modified and introduced in Appendices 4 & 6 of Annex 15. (Please refer to GFV-21-03 for details related to the calculation.)

Amendments to R.85, as submitted in an informal document submitted to GRPE in June 2011. Comments by the Polish delegation were taken into consideration. The GFV 21-07 document highlights these.

Summary regarding Euro VI dual-fuel engines: Working documents containing the essential supplements to enable the type approval of dual-fuel engines are asked for approval. Informal document Informal document GRPE-xx3 is a consolidated version of three documents and Informal document GRPE-xxx4 contains the necessary amendments to R.85 (Power)

The draft time schedule is on time for Euro VI with approval of Amendments to R.49 rev.6 and R85 by WP29 November 2012; target GRPE January 2013 amendments of rev.5 of R.49 (informal) with approval of R.49 rev.5 by GRPE June 2013 and approval of WP29 by November 2013. Retrofits (R115) provisions could begin in June 2013. Also, the LNG Task Force work should be concluded in mid-2013, which would complement the completion of the dual-fuel regulations.

Mr. Martinez (European Commission) comments that 20% of the contracting parties (to 1958 agreement) must agree to these revisions before they come into effect. Question is raised what is the actual process to gain the approval of the contracting parties. Mr. Martinez indicates that he needs to check this with the GRPE/WP29.

Mr. Cagnolati (Landi Renzo) asked about regulations relative to dual-fuel retrofit systems of heavy duty vehicles. Mr. Renaudin remarks that today R.115 is only applicable to retrofit of existing vehicles and the work on R.49 was specific to manufactured vehicles and not retrofit (which isn’t possible similar to a bi-fuel vehicle on gasoline). It also might be possible to create a new retrofit regulation for heavy duty vehicles, or something that can be included in the REC process (Retrofit of Emission Control systems).

There is a further question as to whether a delay is due to technical requirements or administrative requirements. Mr. Rijnders and Mr. Renaudin feel that the technical aspects of the R.49 should be solved first. Mr. Renaudin said that work will start on Euro 5 R.49 and that will deal with retrofits with an informal document prepared for January 2013 and a formal document by June 2013.

Mr. Piccolo suggested that REC is for retrofits and it tends to be for exhaust after-treatment devices and not for fuelling systems. Mr. Renaudin suggests that we must look at the various options as to where the discussion of the retrofits will be most applicable.

Mr.Eberhardt (BMU, Germany) saidhe has been working on the REC since the beginning and indicated that their work is not oriented to getting type approval of a vehicle but is confined to ensuring that replacement parts are compliant with the current regulations. But there may be some overlap.

There was a general discussion about which regulations could apply to retrofit systems versus OEM systems, as well as retrofit components (that are not considered ‘systems’) The key will be to get common agreement on the differences and similarities between retrofits and OEMs and decide into which various regulations these components and systems will be addressed.

GFV-21-08. Mr. Radzimirski’s commented on Annex 15. He indicated two issues: 1) classification of engines as positive ignition, compression ignition, and dual-fuel. In his view, D-F are compression ignition engines, which is not just an ‘editorial’ issue but, as an example, can affect the way in which the test requirements are made on dual-fuel engines versus compression ignition engines; and 2) Emissions from the dual-fuel systems are widely different than standard diesel engines and questions remain how to measure these.

It is important to discuss the application of the 1997 Agreement and to explore this point in next GFV meetings.as we have no direct answer.

Mr. Rijnders will bring the issues of heavy duty and light duty to the GRPE in different parts of the current GRPE agenda, as agreed with the GRPE Chairman.

There was a discussion of how the various amending documents will be dealt with by the GRPE and to decide which documents are formal and informal. Working documents will be supplemented by corrigendum. Mr Rijnders proposed that Mr Renauldin introduce all the HDDF documents in the GRPE Mr. Renaudin will discuss the approach of the dual-fuel documents with Mr. Albus of the GRPE directly, to create a smooth handling in the GRPE.