This appendix provides specifications for standard aging bench equipment and aging procedures which may be used to conduct bench aging durability under the provisions of § 86.1823-08.

1. Aging Bench Configuration

The aging bench must provide the appropriate exhaust flow rate, temperature, air-fuel ratio, exhaust constituents and secondary air injection at the inlet face of the catalyst.

a. The EPA standard aging bench consists of an engine, engine controller, and engine dynamometer. Other configurations may be acceptable (e.g. whole vehicle on a dynamometer, or a burner that provides the correct exhaust conditions), as long as the catalyst inlet conditions and control features specified in this appendix are met.

b. A single aging bench may have the exhaust flow split into several streams providing that each exhaust stream meets the requirements of this appendix. If the bench has more than one exhaust stream, multiple catalyst systems may be aged simultaneously.

2. Fuel and Oil

The fuel used by the engine shall comply with the mileage accumulation fuel provisions of § 86.113 for the applicable fuel type (e.g., gasoline or diesel fuel). The oil used in the engine shall be representative of commercial oils and selected using good engineering judgement.

3. Exhaust System Installation

a. The entire catalyst(s)-plus-oxygen-sensor(s) system, together with all exhaust piping which connects these components, [the “catalyst system”] will be installed on the bench. For engines with multiple exhaust streams (such as some V6 and V8 engines), each bank of the exhaust system will be installed separately on the bench.

b. For exhaust systems that contain multiple in-line catalysts, the entire catalyst system including all catalysts, all oxygen sensors and the associated exhaust piping will be installed as a unit for aging. Alternatively, each individual catalyst may be separately aged for the appropriate period of time.

4. Temperature Measurement

Catalyst temperature shall be measured using a thermocouple placed in the catalyst bed at the location where the highest temperature occurs in the hottest catalyst (typically this occurs approximately one-inch behind the front face of the first catalyst at its longitudinal axis). Alternatively, the feed gas temperature just before the catalyst inlet face may be measured and converted to catalyst bed temperature using a linear transform calculated from correlation data collected on the catalyst design and aging bench to be used in the aging process. The catalyst temperature must be stored digitally at the speed of 1 hertz (one measurement per second).

5. Air/Fuel Measurement

Provisions must be made for the measurement of the air/fuel (A/F) ratio (such as a wide-range oxygen sensor) as close as possible to the catalyst inlet and outlet flanges. The information from these sensors must be stored digitally at the speed of 1 hertz (one measurement per second).

6. Exhaust Flow Balance

Provisions must be made to assure that the proper amount of exhaust (measured in grams/second at stoichiometry, with a tolerance of ±5 grams/second) flows through each catalyst system that is being aged on the bench. The proper flow rate is determined based upon the exhaust flow that would occur in the original vehicle's engine at the steady state engine speed and load selected for the bench aging in paragraph (7).

7. Setup

a. The engine speed, load, and spark timing are selected to achieve a catalyst bed temperature of 800 °C (±10 °C) at steady-state stoichiometric operation.

b. The air injection system is set to provide the necessary air flow to produce 3.0% oxygen (±0.1%) in the steady-state stoichiometric exhaust stream just in front of the first catalyst. A typical reading at the upstream A/F measurement point (required in paragraph 5) is lambda 1.16 (which is approximately 3% oxygen).

c. With the air injection on, set the “Rich” A/F ratio to produce a catalyst bed temperature of 890 °C (±10 °C). A typical A/F value for this step is lambda 0.94 (approximately 2% CO).

8. Aging Cycle

The standard bench aging procedures use the standard bench cycle (SBC) which is described in appendix VII to part 86. The SBC is repeated until the amount of aging calculated from the bench aging time (BAT) equation [ref. § 86.1823-08 (d)(3)] is achieved.

9. Quality Assurance

a. The temperatures and A/F ratio information that is required to be measured in paragraphs (4) and (5) shall be reviewed periodically (at least every 50 hours) during aging. Necessary adjustments shall be made to assure that the SBC is being appropriately followed throughout the aging process.

b. After the aging has been completed, the catalyst time-at-temperature collected during the aging process shall be tabulated into a histogram with temperature bins of no larger than 10 °C. The BAT equation and the calculated effective reference temperature for the aging cycle [ref. § 86.1823-08(d)] will be used to determine if the appropriate amount of thermal aging of the catalyst has in fact occurred. Bench aging will be extended if the thermal effect of the calculated aging time is not at least 95% of the target thermal aging.

10. Startup and Shutdown

Care should be taken to assure that the maximum catalyst temperature for rapid deterioration (e.g., 1050 °C) does not occur during startup or shutdown. Special low temperature startup and shutdown procedures may be used to alleviate this concern.

[71 FR 2837, Jan. 17, 2006]