THE PROBLEM WITH DIESEL ENGINE PERFORMANCE
There is a common misperception that modern engines operate efficiently and that the ECM adjusts engine performance to ensure engines continue operating efficiently. Consequently, many engine owners have a false belief that their engines are running optimally because the computer is adjusting engine performance. This false belief and poor engine performance leads to significant excess pollution and costs companies millions of dollars in excess fuel consumption.
Revealiency has conducted thousands of emissions tests on large diesel engines throughout the world made by virtually every diesel engine manufacturer and tier rating. The engines that have been tested have been maintained by highly-trained professional mechanics or OEM-contracted mechanics and Revealiency’s tools identified considerable opportunities to improve engine performance. Engine owners are typically not aware that their engines are running poorly because they have always run the same way and the engine is not generating
THE IMPACT – ENGINE INEFFIENCY
Revealiency routinely tests engines that consume significantly more fuel than the engine was designed to consume resulting in excess pollution. The resulting engine inefficiency can go undetected over the entire life of the engine or until multiple issues compound making the engine unusable or the issues trigger an OEM fault code warning.
Inefficient engines produce considerable more pollution that the engine ower anticipates and consume more fuel than is needed to accomplish the work the engine was designed to perform.
Revealiency has identified considerable differences between where engine owners think their engines are performing and where they are actually performing. We typically exceed our 5%-7% savings target.
Because these large engines generally have high duty cycles and operate around the clock, even small improvements in efficiency deliver significant benefits to engine owners.
REVEALIENCY CAN HELP
Revealiency’s Emissions-Based Maintenance tool is the perfect addition to your maintenance toolbox. Conducting ongoing combustion analysis, maintenance technicians can verify that engines are performing well or our AI system will make practical recommendations they can take to improve engine performance. The efficiency opportunities that the EBM process identifies typically occur before engine fault codes identify issues. EBM process identifies combustion drift quickly and provides recommendations to maintenance teams on how to improve engine efficiency. The graph below demonstrates the opportunities that the EBM software routinely identifies leading to correction and engine efficiency.
THE PROBLEM – ILLUSTRATED
The diagram below illustrates the expectation gap between how engine owners believe their engines are currently operating (denoted by the black line) compared to how typical engines observed by Revealiency operate in the field (denoted by the red line). The difference between the black and red lines is the level of undetected inefficiency present in the engine.
It is not uncommon to observe engines that are 10%+ inefficiency (measured by excess pollution or fuel consumption). Revealiency’s target is to achieve improvements of 5%-7%. By sampling and analyzing engine exhaust, our tools leverage technology to identify when engine performance falls outside expected tolerances allowing for timely corrective actions to be made to return the engine to expected performance levels. The current state allows smaller failures to occur and not be corrected until they either aggregate to a significant level where the engine becomes unusable and inefficient requiring extensive maintenance triggering an OEM fault code or cause catastrophic engine failure.
By implementing the EBM solution, customers proactively identify and correct combustion inefficiencies quickly. When engine combustion is efficient, the engine requires less fuel to complete the same amount of work. With less fuel consumed, the engine emits less pollution and every gallon that is not consumed extends engine life. The EBM solution proactively monitors engine combustion and can warn maintenance professionals about deteriorating engine performance before in-field catastrophic engine failure.