Cummins yesterday made two major announcements regarding its ability to reduce the emissions from its engines.

The company announced an important milestone in the development of cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology required to meet future emissions requirements, which are legislated at 2.5 grams oxides of nitrogen (NOx) plus non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHC).
Exhaust gas recirculation technology allows for a portion of exhaust gas to be reused, effectively reducing exhaust emissions. To take advantage of this technology, Cummins utilized variable geometry turbocharging developed by its wholly owned subsidiary, Holset.
This technology was successfully demonstrated on the next generation of the Cummins B series engine and is also being applied to its other medium-duty and heavy-duty products, which are currently in field tests.
Cummins achieved a 2 percent improvement in fuel economy compared to its current product, reduced NOx by 50 percent, and reduced the time of unaided cold starts over 80 percent. In addition, the throttle response of the engine significantly improved from today's product as a result of the variable geometry turbocharging.
"We extensively researched all technical solutions, and concluded that the only feasible technology for meeting the 2.5 gram levels is with exhaust gas recirculation," said John Wall, Cummins vice president and chief technical officer. "No other option provides the benefits of fuel economy, cost, responsiveness and overall performance, and in our view, no other currently available technology can achieve a 2.5 gram (NOx + NMHC)
Cummins also announced an initiative to give owners of some existing engines a way to voluntarily lower emissions. Electronic calibrations will be available on 1996 to 1998 Cummins M11 Plus or N14 Plus engines.
"This will allow our truck customers to achieve lower NOx levels immediately with no reduction in performance or reliability," said Martha Brooks, Cummins vice president and general manager of Truck and Bus Business. Customers may go to qualified Cummins distributors or authorized dealers to have electronic calibrations uploaded.