Amminex beats conventional NOx reduction technology
After years of road testing and demonstrations of how its disruptive technology effectively reduces toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions during operation in cities, Amminex has achieved a major commercial breakthrough by winning a contract to upgrade the majority of Copenhagen’s city buses for local traffic authority Movia.
The Danish government and the municipalities of Copenhagen and Frederiksberg have decided to upgrade more than 300 city buses to combat toxic NOX/NO2 and particle emissions. Today, these emissions are causing significant health problems to citizens in some areas of the city and consequently the buses will now be upgraded from the current Euro III/IV/V/EEV emissions standards to meet the much stricter Euro VI.
Amminex, together with both local partners and UK-based Eminox, has been selected to perform the upgrade and will install complete SCRT® catalyst based emissions systems in which Amminex ASDS™ technology is the key enabler of optimal NOx reduction. This will enable the buses to conform not only to the Euro VI standard, but also an additional expected future tightening of this standard that caters for real driving emissions (RDE).
Amminex ASDS™ technology unlocks the full potential of the SCR catalyst by storing and injecting gaseous ammonia (NH3) into the exhaust stream. This enables a highly efficient NOx reduction in all driving conditions without compromising the fuel efficiency and CO2 footprint of the vehicle. Moreover, it represents a distinct advantage in cold climates as well as low exhaust temperatures, which is typical for buses operating in urban environments.
The EU tender was won by Amminex in competition with other technologies using conventional liquid based NOx reductant, commonly known as AdBlue®. This reductant has previously been used on many of the buses and has a number of known physical limitations. At low exhaust temperatures when buses move slowly through the city for example, little or no NOx reduction may occur.
“Buses that have already been upgraded and made operational are all performing extremely well and we sincerely believe that the Amminex ASDS™ technology has the potential to set new world standards for NOx reduction,” says Tue Johannessen, CTO and co-founder of Amminex.
“We are proud to roll out our ASDS™ technology including the difference it will make for air quality and the citizens of Copenhagen. We have other similar retrofit opportunities in the pipeline and look forward to bring our technology and Danish clean-tech approach to other cities around the world. Currently we are working with one of our shareholders, Faurecia, on penetrating the local Chinese and Asian bus and truck markets and we are also looking at retrofit projects in major cities. So these are very exciting times at Amminex,” says Annika Isaksson, CEO of Amminex.
Installations have already begun and will be finalized by March 2016 according to the current project timeline. All upgraded buses will be very easy for Copenhageners to spot since Movia will permanently put stickers on the buses to make the public aware of the positive change.