Horizon prize for the Cleanest Engine Retrofit
What was the Horizon Prize for the Cleanest Engine Retrofit?
Run by the European Commission, with support from Challenge Works this € 1.5 million Horizon Prize was awarded to the contestants who demonstrated, on a running vehicle, a retrofit solution for an existing engine and powertrains that best addressed the issue of greatly reducing emissions of NOx, particles, hydrocarbons in real driving conditions, while ensuring future low levels of undesired other pollutants.
This prize aimed to reduce the pollution produced by the existing fleet by promoting the development of retrofittable technology (i.e. devices or a modification of existing engines). The implementation of the technology should extend the life of retrofitted vehicles while greatly reducing their impact on the urban environment and could allow city authorities to consider measures to encourage their use to solve air quality issues.
Why did we do this?
European citizens in many urban areas suffer from serious health impacts due to air quality issues. According to the European Environment Agency air pollution is the top environmental risk factor of premature death in Europe. WHO studies have also revealed that exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, including reduced foetal growth, pre-term birth and spontaneous abortions, and exposure to air pollution in early life can significantly affect childhood development and trigger diseases like allergies, asthma or diabetes later in life.
What happened?
The prize was launched in Warsaw in April 2016, with applicants having until 12 September 2017 to submit their solution.
On 16 April 2018, the European Commission awarded the Horizon Prize on Engine Retrofit for Clean Air at a ceremony during the Transport Research Arena (TRA) in Vienna, Austria.
This challenge was funded by
Winner – Amminex Emissions Technology
The € 1.5 million prize was awarded to the winning consortium consisting of lead company Amminex Emissions Technology, supported by TU Graz, Johnson Matthey PLC and International Council on Clean Transportation Europe.
The results of the winning technology are remarkable: it demonstrated that effectively retrofitting diesel vehicles is feasible and the demonstrated reduction of emissions both on the test bench and during real driving were impressive, putting the retrofitted vehicle ahead of many EURO 6 vehicles currently on the market. On the test bench, the demonstrated reduction of emissions over very demanding test conditions, which included testing at 7°C, was over 80%. The results were even better in real driving on normal roads, where it matched or, in some cases, was even lower than current EURO 6 vehicle emissions in the recently introduced real driving protocol. The vehicle was also tested on steep mountain roads – and in this even more demanding scenario emissions decreased by almost 90%.
