Disclosed is a method for diagnosing a first exhaust treatment component for treatment of an exhaust gas stream comprising means for oxidizing nitric oxide into nitrogen dioxide. A first reduction catalytic converter is arranged upstream said means for oxidizing nitric oxide into nitrogen dioxide, and a second reduction catalytic converter is arranged downstream said means. A reagent is for reduction of nitrogen oxides in said first catalytic converter, and a first sensor measures an occurrence of nitrogen oxide downstream said means but upstream said second reduction catalytic converter. The method comprises: causing a supply of reagent upstream said first reduction catalytic converter to an extent exceeding the extent to which reagent is consumed by the first reduction catalytic converter, determining a first measure of the occurrence of reagent downstream said means for oxidizing, and diagnosing said means for oxidizing nitric oxide into nitrogen dioxide based on said first measure.

A system for determining a performance status of an exhaust aftertreatment system may include determining an ammonia-to-nitrogen ratio using a sample ammonia input value and a sample NO.sub.x input value. An actual NO.sub.x input value and an actual ammonia input value can be received. An emission value from may be received from a first sensor. A NO.sub.x emission estimate, an ammonia slip estimate, and an optimal ammonia storage value for a selective catalytic reduction may be determined using an iterative inefficiency calculation based, at least in part, on the actual NO.sub.x input value, the actual ammonia input value, and the ammonia-to-nitrogen ratio; and the NO.sub.x emission estimate, the ammonia slip estimate, and the optimal ammonia storage value may be outputted to a diagnostic system.

A method for diagnosing an exhaust component in an exhaust passage for an internal combustion engine of a vehicle. In the method, operating parameters of the internal combustion engine are monitored and recorded by a control unit while the internal combustion engine is running. If a predefined emission threshold for the exhaust component for compliance with emissions is found to have been exceeded, the current operating parameters of the internal combustion engine are stored in a control unit. The operating state of the internal combustion engine when the predefined emission threshold is exceeded is reproduced on a vehicle test bench using the stored operating parameters. The diagnosis of the exhaust component is carried out based on a comparison between the current measured value from the exhaust component and the current measured value from an emission measuring device and/or the predefined emission threshold.

An internal combustion engine has an exhaust gas aftertreatment system comprising in the given order in the flow direction of the exhaust gas: a device for metering ammonia and/or a compound that can be decomposed to form ammonia into the exhaust gas to be cleaned, as a reducing agent; one or more SCR catalysts, which form a first SCR unit; one or more SCR and/or ammonia oxidation and/or ammonia slip catalysts, which form a second SCR unit; and a NO.sub.x sensor in the exhaust gas tail pipe. An amount, to be metered into the exhaust gas, of ammonia and/or of the decomposable compound is set using the nitrogen oxide concentration in the exhaust gas tail pipe that is determined by the NO.sub.x sensor, and the occurrence or non-occurrence of an ammonia excess in the region of the NO.sub.x sensor can be determined from the sensor signal of the NO.sub.x sensor by evaluating said sensor signal.

A method is disclosed for controlling an injector for injecting a reductant into a selective catalytic reduction system of an internal combustion engine. A value of a concentration of nitrogen-oxides in the exhaust gas aftertreatment system downstream of the selective catalytic reduction system is measured, and a first difference is calculated between the measured value of the nitrogen-oxides concentration and a predetermined reference value thereof. A value of a concentration of ammonia in the exhaust gas aftertreatment system downstream of the selective catalytic reduction system is measured, and a second difference is calculated between the measured value of the ammonia concentration and a predetermined reference value thereof. A quantity of reductant to be injected by the injector is calculated as a function of the calculated first difference and second difference, and the injector is operated to inject the calculated quantity of reductant.

Disclosed is a gas sensor element having an electrode containing a first metal as a predominant component and a lead containing a second metal as a predominant component. The electrode and the lead are connected directly at a connection boundary thereof, or connected indirectly via a connection joint. The connection boundary or joint includes a component region where either one of the first and second metals lower in specific gravity than the other of the first and second metals is contained in an amount ranging between those in the electrode and the lead.

Implementations of systems and methods for detecting the failure of an selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst may include a controller or one or more circuits for acquiring an ammonia to NOx ratio (ANR) value for exhaust gas flowing through an exhaust system, acquiring a conversion inefficiency value indicative of a conversion inefficiency of the SCR catalyst, acquire an NH.sub.3 slip value indicative of an amount of NH.sub.3 slip through the exhaust system downstream of the SCR catalyst, calculate a combined ANR/conversion inefficiency/NH3 slip (ACN) value based on the ANR value, conversion inefficiency value, and NH.sub.3 slip value, and indicating a failure of the SCR catalyst responsive to the calculated ACN value exceeding a predetermined threshold value.

A method for controlling a SCR catalytic converter of a vehicle, comprising a first step of modelling said at least one SCR catalytic converter as a plurality of NH3 storage cells (cell1, cell2, . . . , celln; cell1, cell2 . . . celln, cell1, cell2, . . . , celln), a second step of controlling only a first (cell1) of said plurality of storage cells, according to feedback control based on a reference value, and a third step of adapting said reference value on the basis of a storage level of at least another storage cell of said plurality of storage cells, wherein said first storage cell is arranged at an inlet of said SCR catalytic converter according an exhaust gas circulation.

Selective catalytic reduction systems are known and are generally included in exhaust systems of diesel engines in order to treat the exhaust gases of such engines. Such systems involve the introduction of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) into exhaust gas flowing in an exhaust passage of an engine. When dosing DEF onto a hydrolysis catalyst in a SCR system, the DEF will under certain conditions cool the hydrolysis catalyst sufficiently to either slow down or effectively prevent ammonia release, which creates a lag or delay in the function of the hydrolysis catalyst. This limits the amount of control which can be exerted over ammonia storage in the SCR catalyst, and NOx conversion. In a first step, a set of measurement data is received from one or more sensors provided in the system. Subsequently, a first set of characteristics associated with a state of a component of the catalytic system, a second set of characteristics associated with an output of the catalytic system and a third set of characteristics associated with a bias and a scaling factor in the system are derived. In a third step, the derived sets of characteristics are used to control the catalytic system.

Methods comprising: arranging a binary lambda sensor and a second sensor downstream of a catalytic converter; when the engine is run for the first time, using an initial lambda setpoint for closed-loop control; measuring the NH.sub.3 value in the exhaust gas; simultaneously measuring the signal from the binary lambda sensor; if the NH.sub.3 value lies above a first threshold value, reducing the lambda setpoint value of the binary lambda signal until the NH.sub.3 value lies below the first threshold value or the binary sensor signal lies below a second threshold value; recording the corresponding binary sensor signal when the NH.sub.3 value passes the first threshold value, for binary sensor signal setpoint value adaptation, as V.sub.binary-left; and calculating the real lambda setpoint value.