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Corning announces 1 millionth gasoline particulate filter

25 June 2018

Corning Incorporated announced that its Environmental Technologies business reached a significant production milestone at its Kaiserslautern, Germany manufacturing facility—producing its 1 millionth Corning® DuraTrap® GC gasoline particulate filter (GPF) for automotive emission control.

The facility launched an expansion effort in 2016 for production of these ceramic particulate filters, engineered specifically for gasoline engines, in anticipation of European auto market demand for this new emissions control technology.

DuraTrap® GC filters are designed to help automakers reduce particle number (PN) and mass (PM) emissions from gasoline engines. These filters feature a new, cordierite-based material composition with a ceramic microstructure that delivers high filtration efficiency of fine particulates, while maintaining engine performance with low back pressure, said Corning. Filter formulations are available for both uncoated GPF applications, and for GPFs coated with a three-way catalyst to help address gaseous emission standards.

The GPF technology was launched back in 2014, but wide-scale GPF application has increased steeply since 2017, as a result of the PN RDE testing requirements that became effective for new types of GDI vehicles at the Euro 6d-TEMP stage from September 2017. Considering that more than 15 million new vehicles are registered annually in the EU—over 50% of which are gasoline vehicles—and that GPFs are also supplied by NGK, the 1 million GPFs produced by Corning indicates that the technology has reached a market penetration of at least 10% of European gasoline cars.

China will be the next market to introduce particulate filtration of gasoline engines, noted Corning. China 6 emission regulations—to be implemented from 2020—will apply to all gasoline engine vehicles, not just GDI. Once China 6 regulations are fully implemented in 2023, most gasoline vehicles in China will potentially require a gasoline particulate filter. In 2017, Corning announced a new manufacturing facility in Hefei, China, in the anticipation of the China 6 regulations.

Once regulations are fully implemented in Europe and China, Corning expects to build a gasoline particulate filter business with an estimated $500 million in annual sales.

Gasoline particulate filters are not expected to be widely adopted in North America, where particle emissions are regulated through mass-based PM limits only, as opposed to particle numbers. The US Tier 3 and California LEV III PM limits are likely to be met through in-cylinder control technologies in most gasoline vehicles.

Source: Corning