Tenneco Inc. recently announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the mobile emissions business of Combustion Components Associates, a manufacturer of air pollution control technologies. Tenneco says the acquisition enhances its complete system integration capabilities for selective catalyst reduction emissions control technologies designed to meet future more stringent diesel emissions regulations for passenger cars and trucks.
Tenneco will purchase CCA’s mobile emissions business for about $16 million. The transaction, which is expected to close in September, is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of various third-party approvals.
CCA develops emissions control solutions for customers in the transportation and power generation industries. The company has designed and manufactured a nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions reduction system called ELIM-NOx, which is designed to reduce NOx emissions by 70 to 90 percent using SCR technology. SCR is the process of removing NOx through a chemical reaction and is considered the leading technology for helping diesel engines meet the NOx emissions standards. Customer demands for this new technology, driven by regulations, will increase in the United States, Europe and China starting in 2010-2012.
“This acquisition strengthens our advanced technology offering,” says Gregg Sherrill, chairman and chief executive officer of Lake Forest, Ill.-based Tenneco. “ELIM-NOx is one of the few proven high-performance systems for urea and hydrocarbon injection. Combined with the SCR technology we produce today, Tenneco can offer our customers a fully-integrated emissions control system to meet stringent diesel emissions regulations for NOx reduction. This technology allows us to optimize both the performance and cost of a total aftertreatment system, providing greater value for our customers globally.”
The ELIM-NOx injector system and “self-learn” monitoring device are unique, according to Tenneco: The injector system is capable of providing rapid, uniform dispersion of urea without the use of steam or compressed air, reducing overall system lifecycle cost. Tenneco believes that, with this technology, it will be the only complete emissions control system manufacturer with the capability to manufacture and integrate its own injector systems into a diesel emissions control system.
The “self-learn” monitoring device – which is designed to use sensors to measure NOx, exhaust temperature and other engine parameters – significantly reduces vehicle development time and cost, Tenneco says. It is temporarily mounted on a development vehicle as it operates in normal driving conditions; according to the company, this helps minimize off-line vehicle testing and calibration.
“The CCA self-learning capability is truly unique, allowing for very quick prototyping of development vehicles,” says Tim Jackson, Tenneco’s chief technology officer. “We believe it will offer an extremely attractive system integration alternative for our customers, saving both time and money compared to traditional dynamometer calibration techniques.”
In addition to providing this solution to original equipment manufacturers, Tenneco also will sell retrofit versions of the ELIM-NOx system for commercial vehicles. Later this year, the company expects to complete final validation testing for the system to be added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of verified retrofit technologies.
