Assessment of a NOx Measurement Procedure for Periodic Technical Inspection (PTI) of Light-Duty Diesel Vehicles

A Periodic Technical Inspection (PTI) of vehicles promotes road safety and environmental protection. Indeed, a PTI is also used to verify the proper functioning of the vehicle’s aftertreatment system (ATS) over its lifetime. While the current Directive 2014/45/EU, which covers the PTI, does not require a NOx emissions measurement, the ongoing revision of the roadworthiness package aims at including new methods for measuring exhaust NOx and particle number (PN) emissions. PTI tests are required to be simple, quick, inexpensive and effective. In this study, a new methodology for a NOx measurement during the PTIs of Diesel vehicles equipped with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit is assed. Seven Euro 6 light-duty Diesel vehicles fulfilling post-Real Driving Emissions (RDE) regulations were tested. The NOx-PTI methodology consists of measuring NOx emissions from the vehicle tailpipe at engine low idle speed after properly conditioning the vehicle ATS. In such conditions, a well-functioning SCR unit reduced NOx emissions and the methodology proved to be suitable to discriminate between functioning and malfunctioning SCR systems.