Eminox emissions reduction tech to be trialled on diesel trains

Emissions control company Eminox, train-leasing company Porterbrook and Southwest Railway have announced a new partnership that aims to reduce emissions from the UK’s diesel trains.

The companies are working together on a trial that could see Eminox’s automotive after-treatment technology fitted to Britain’s existing diesel trains.

This new partnership is being supported by the Department for Transport, delivered through InnovateUK’s First of a Kind funding, which allows a trial fitting of Eminox Selective Catalytic Reduction & Continuously Regenerating Trap (SCRT) technology to a South Western Railway Class 159 diesel train. This trial will be the world’s first fitting of the SCRT technology to rail.

The trial is expected to see a significant reduction in diesel emissions. According to Eminox, its catalyst can reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by over 80%, particulate matter (PM) by over 90%, and both carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by over 90%. If the trial proves successful, the technology is likely to be deployed on a number of existing fleets across Britain’s railways.

Carlos Vicente of Eminox said: ‘We have taken our 20 years’ experience of on-road retrofit technology into the rail market so operators can utilise the best available technology to lower emissions and improve air quality in the growing number of clean air zones and ultra-low emission zones.

"Eminox retrofit technology will help reduce diesel particulate matter from the rail network and deliver environmental benefits to the communities the railway serves. This is part of the government’s drive for a cleaner, greener economy by cutting emissions and removing diesel-only trains from the network by 2040."

Eminox’s exhaust and emissions control systems are used on buses, coaches, trucks and other heavy-duty diesel machinery.