Eminox on track with emissions solution

An automotive emissions solution will be used on diesel trains.

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

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

This new partnership between Eminox and Porterbrook is being supported by the Department for Transport, delivered through InnovateUK’s First of a Kind (FoaK 2) funding. The FoaK 2 funding will allow trial fitting of Eminox 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. Eminox’s state-of-the-art 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 innovation is likely to be deployed on a number of existing fleets across Britain’s railways.

Carlos Vicente, retrofit sales director for 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.’

Manufactured in the company’s UK factory, Eminox’s exhaust and emissions control systems are used on buses, coaches, trucks and other heavy-duty diesel machinery.