Cat: ACERT engines will be ready for early 2003

MOSSVILLE, Ill. (Sept. 24, 2001) — Caterpillar heavy-duty engines with ACERT technology to meet coming emissions demands will be ready for market in early 2003, according to CEO Glen Barton, instead of late 2003 as originally planned.

All other engine makers have said they’ll meet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s October 2002 deadline for the new standards, by using cooled exhaust-gas recirculation. It’s neither radical nor fancy, but based on examples we’ve driven, it seems to work quite well.

Cat, however, rejected EGR in favor of what it calls Advanced Combustion Emissions Reduction Technology (ACERT). Cat says it’s less complex than EGR and thus promises reliability and durability. It’s also said to make installation easier for truck manufacturers.

“(ACERT) is simple…quiet, durable, and positions us for the 2007 (standards) on-highway regulations,” said Dan Murphy, vice-president of Cat’s performance engine products division, in a recent Reuters story. “If we went to cooled EGR, by the time we got to 2007, we would have needed another miracle, another breakthrough where we had to change direction yet again.’

Cat’s inability to meet the October 2002 deadline remains a problem, but a smaller one if the engines are ready to go early in 2003. The EPA has not yet decided on penalties, but it’s likely that the company will simply pay those fines on non-compliant engines in the intervening months. Its mid-range diesels will meet the EPA deadline without difficulty.

The company has yet to offer a detailed explanation of how ACERT works, even to most employees, though we do know that it will concentrate on optimizing in-cylinder combustion and then use exhaust aftertreatment — an oxidizing catalyst chamber — to clean up residual emissions. There will be a second-generation version of its well proven hydraulically actuated electronic unit injection (HEUI) technology, and a new electronic control package with double the present processing speed and more memory.

There are no ACERT engines in trucks at the moment, but that’s presently slated for early next year.