Speaker Interviews -
Reducing Driving Emissions: Ensuring Compliance with RDE and WLTP

Ahead of the Reducing Driving Emissions seminar, we caught up with Tom Moakes, Senior Engineer - RDE & PEMS at HORIBA MIRA. Tom explained his role and involvement with regards to the seminar, critical engineering challenges, what he is looking forward to at the event and why it is important for industry professionals to attend.

Q: Could you briefly explain your role, involvement and experience with regards to emissions testing?

Tom Moakes (TM): I am a Senior Engineer within the Real Driving Emissions & PEMS team at HORIBA MIRA. I oversee a large proportion of our commercial test programmes, including RDE development & certification, in-service conformity, as well as internal R&D activities.

Q: What is the main challenge facing the industry at the moment regarding emissions testing?

TM: One of the main challenges facing the industry is ensuring vehicles are robust to the extended scope of RDE and WLTP, which brings with it an increased burden of testing and upfront development. This necessitates improving the vehicle development process with regards to engine and after-treatment, where frontloading the calibration process with new tools and methodology such as simulation and road-to-rig, is becoming more important.

Q: What is the most exciting development in improving emissions testing at the moment, either within your company or in the industry in general?

TM: I think one of the most exciting developments is the diversification of real world emissions testing, particularly in regards to off-highway equipment (Non-road mobile machinery/NRMM), with the introduction of Stage V regulations.

Q: What do you think is the most important factor to consider when carrying out emissions testing?

TM: I think the most important factor is achieving a high test success rate and right first time testing, to relieve the already escalated testing burden faced by the industry.

Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing those involved with emissions testing and how do you think it can be overcome?

TM: I think one of the biggest challenges is understanding how to accelerate the development process of engine and after-treatment. There are tools and methodology such as road-to-rig, simulation, hardware in the loop testing, but there is more work to be done across the industry to validate these development techniques.

Q: What other presentations or topics are you looking forward to hearing more about at the forthcoming seminar?

TM: I’d be keen to learn how other industries are exploiting similar technologies.

Q: Why do you think it is important for industry professionals to attend this seminar?

TM: I think it is important for industry professionals to exchange opinions, experiences & knowledge regarding the challenges of RDE and WLTP.

Interested in finding out more? Join Tom and other experts from the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) UK, McLaren Automotive, Volvo Group, MAHLE Powertrain, Ricardo Energy & Environment, University of Bath and others at the Reducing Driving Emissions seminar on 9 July 2019 at One Birdcage Walk in London.

Ahead of the Reducing Driving Emissions seminar, we caught up with David Sykes, Senior Consultant - Airborne Particle Specialist at Ricardo Energy & Environment. David explained his role and involvement with regards to the seminar, critical engineering challenges, what he is looking forward to at the event and why it is important for industry professionals to attend.

Q: Could you briefly explain your role, involvement and experience with regards to emissions testing?

David Sykes (DS): My role within Ricardo Energy and Environment is as a senior consultant specialising in particle science and measurement, but also helping in many air quality tasks within our busy consultancy. My main focus is calibrating engine particle emissions equipment, chiefly for one customer, however we have at least 4 such worldwide customers who rely on us to provide UKAS / ISO 170205 calibration of this type of equipment. I also do some roadside calibration work, ratification of AQ data, provide bioaerosol measurements and expertise, and work on SO2 and CO2 emissions inventories.

Q: What is the main challenge facing the industry at the moment regarding emissions testing?

DS: Apart what this conference is focusing on, I believe the industry needs to look at sub 23nm particles in more detail, and I am aware of several collaborative projects that are working to measure particle sizes down to 10nm in size. I know equipment design and methodology for this are challenging, especially considering losses and equipment ability to measure well at these sizes.

Q: What is the most exciting development in improving emissions testing at the moment, either within your company or in the industry in general?

DS: The recognition of the vital role played by standardisation of instrumentation, measurement methods and QC conventions, along with the international collaboration and openness to enable it to be achieved.

Q: What do you think is the most important factor to consider when carrying out emissions testing?

DS: Being able to calibrate to a standard and ensuring accreditation is adhered to. We find our customers value our ISO 17025 and UKAS accreditation.

Q: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing those involved with emissions testing and how do you think it can be overcome?

DS: As noted above sub 23nm particles measurement, but this is being dealt with as an industry-wide development program. Otherwise, the departure from static measurement of emissions and use of Portable Emissions Measurement systems (PEMs) is challenging, especially considering the data from PEMs needs to be as reliable and correlated with the data obtained from static systems. Reliable calibration is a good start to solving these issues but understanding the sampling process is essential to overcoming this challenge.

DS: As well as giving a background to RDE and WLTP, the variety of speakers and topics will help professionals attending gain a greater understanding of the many difficulties and challenges in this area.

Interested in finding out more? Join David and other experts from the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) UK, McLaren Automotive, HORIBA MIRA, Volvo Group, MAHLE Powertrain, University of Bath and others at the Reducing Driving Emissions seminar on 9 July 2019 at One Birdcage Walk in London.