At least 419 buses to be upgraded with Eminox SCRT technology in 2013

Eminox SCRT emissions technology is to be rolled out as part of a major bus retrofit programme in London to tackle air pollution. This will play a part in ensuring all of TfL’s buses meet Euro 4 standard or better for NOx emissions by the end of 2015, as announced by the Mayor of London today. Six London bus operators will be involved in the programme with the Go Ahead Group, First Group and one other operator already selecting Eminox as their partner for the project. The rest are yet to announce their decision. Eminox will work with Go Ahead Group to upgrade 259 buses and with First Group for a further 90. Specialist Eminox fitting teams are already working at the operators’ depots to carry out the fitting of the systems around the operational requirements of each fleet.

London’s bus retrofit programme is the largest scheme of its kind in Europe and will be funded by £5 million from central Government, matched by £5 million from TfL. In total, approximately 900 buses will be upgraded which will be a combination of Volvo B7s, Dennis Darts and Tridents.

The Euro III buses, already retrofitted with CRT technology to reduce particulate matter, will have their exhaust systems adapted to full SCRT. However, this is not a simple case of bolting on an SCR system as the whole unit must be repackaged and integrated onto the bus within the available space.

“Buses are responsible for 10% of NO_x emissions across the capital and this retrofit programme will make significant inroads in reducing these,” said Kathye Henderson, Marketing Manager at Eminox. “I’m delighted that Eminox is to play an important role in the retrofit programme which represents an effective, available and affordable means of cutting emissions from public transport.”

The bus retrofit programme follows a successful TfL pilot project in which a new variant of Eminox’s SCRT technology was developed to specifically target reduction of primary NO₂ emissions while maintaining other emissions reductions. Eminox engineers have therefore worked closely with catalyst experts at Johnson Matthey to meet the challenge. Independent testing carried out on the MLTB cycle, demonstrated reductions of almost 90% of NO_x and over 50% of primary NO₂. This beat TfL’s ambitious targets and means the vehicles are expected to operate close to Euro VI emissions levels. This backed by in-use data showing real-world NOx reduction of over 80% on London buses.

Eminox’s SCRT technology was recently commended at the 2013 Rushlight awards and is capable of upgrading buses as old as Euro II to meet Euro V emissions standards, 15 existing vehicles to be upgraded for the cost of one new bus