An exhaust purification system is provided with a NOx-occlusion-reduction-type catalyst and a NOx purge rich control unit that executes NOx purge of reducing and purifying the occluded NOx by putting the exhaust into a rich state by fuel injection control, in a case where a catalyst temperature of the NOx-occlusion-reduction-type catalyst is equal to or higher than a catalyst temperature threshold value and a NOx occlusion amount of the NOx-occlusion-reduction-type catalyst is equal to or higher than an NOx occlusion amount threshold value, and executes the NOx purge even when the NOx occlusion amount is less than the NOx occlusion amount threshold value, in a case where the catalyst temperature is equal to or higher than a catalyst temperature threshold value which is greater than the catalyst temperature threshold value.

An apparatus for purifying exhaust gas includes: an engine; an exhaust gas air-fuel ratio adjustor for adjusting an air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas; a lean NO.sub.x trap (LNT) mounted on the exhaust pipe and generating ammonia or reducing nitrogen oxides or desorbed nitrogen oxides contained in the exhaust gas using a reducing agent including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, or hydrogen contained in the exhaust gas; a three way catalyst (TWC) mounted on the exhaust pipe at a rear end of the LNT, and converting noxious gas in the exhaust gas into harmless components through a redox reaction; and a controller controlling the air-fuel ratio of the exhaust gas to a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio when the nitrogen oxide storage or purification performance of the LNT is in the operating period of the engine less than a predetermined level.

An engine control device is provided, which includes an engine body where a cylinder is formed, an exhaust passage through which exhaust gas discharged from the engine body circulates, a NO.sub.x sensor disposed in the exhaust passage and configured to detect a concentration of NO.sub.x in the exhaust gas, an injector configured to change an air-fuel ratio inside the cylinder, an in-cylinder temperature changer configured to change a temperature inside the cylinder, and a controller configured to control the injector and the exhaust shutter valve. The controller controls the injector based on a detection value of the NO.sub.x sensor to variably set the air-fuel ratio inside the cylinder, and when a particular condition that the air-fuel ratio inside the cylinder is leaner than a preset upper limit is satisfied, and causes the in-cylinder temperature changer to raise the temperature inside the cylinder.

An engine control device is provided, which includes an ignition plug configured to ignite mixture gas inside a cylinder of the engine, an injector configured to change an air-fuel ratio inside the cylinder, a NO.sub.x sensor, and a controller including a processor. The controller performs a first control to control the ignition plug so that ignition is performed at a basic ignition timing or an ignition timing after the basic timing is corrected based on a combustion state of the mixture gas, and a second control to control the injector so that a NO.sub.x concentration approaches a given target value. When the ignition timing is corrected by the first control to a retarding side, the controller suspends a correction to a richer side even if the NO.sub.x concentration is a concentration at which the air-fuel ratio is corrected to the richer side by the second control.

A catalyst deterioration diagnosis device includes: a unit configured to obtain a temperature of a catalyst; a unit configured to obtain a sensor output from a gas sensor disposed between the catalyst and an exhaust port; and a unit configured to determine the catalyst to be faulty when the temperature of the catalyst obtained when the sensor output becomes a preset evaluative output is equal to or higher than an evaluative catalyst temperature.

Systems, apparatuses, and methods include an upstream exhaust analysis circuit structured to determine a characteristic of an exhaust gas stream entering a nitrous oxide (NOx) storage catalyst; a prediction circuit structured to predict a downstream NOx concentration of an exhaust gas stream exiting the NOx storage catalyst based on a model of a NOx storage capacity or a dynamic response of the NOx storage catalyst; a downstream exhaust analysis circuit structured to determine a downstream NOx concentration of the exhaust gas stream exiting the NOx storage catalyst; and a comparison circuit structured to compare the predicted downstream NOx concentration to the determined downstream NOx concentration, and determine a health of the NOx storage catalyst based on the comparison.

A method for adapting a characteristic curve of a nitrogen oxide sensor of a combustion engine with exhaust gas recirculation having the first nitrogen oxide sensor upstream of an SCR catalytic converter and a second nitrogen oxide sensor downstream of the SCR catalytic converter includes determining that a particle filter is in a regeneration phase, increasing the exhaust gas recirculation rate, interrupting the supply of urea by a urea injection device, acquiring first nitrogen oxide values from signals generated by the first nitrogen oxide sensor, determining that the first nitrogen oxide values are within a first nitrogen oxide interval, acquiring values from second nitrogen oxide signals generated by the second nitrogen oxide sensor, and determining that the second nitrogen oxide values are within a second nitrogen oxide interval, and adapting the characteristic curve of the first nitrogen oxide sensor by the second nitrogen oxide values.

A heavy-duty truck has a diesel engine, an exhaust after-treatment system, and an engine control unit. The exhaust after-treatment system includes a close-coupled selective catalytic reduction system and an underbody selective catalytic reduction system, a first NO.sub.x sensor upstream of the close-coupled selective catalytic reduction system, a second NO.sub.x sensor between the two selective catalytic reduction systems, and a third NO.sub.x sensor downstream of the underbody selective catalytic reduction system. The engine control unit may perform methods allowing intrusive diagnostics to be performed on exhaust gas NO.sub.x sensors using the selective catalytic reduction systems during normal operation of the heavy-duty truck.

A catalyst deterioration diagnosis method is a method for a system. The system includes a stepped transmission or a continuously variable transmission connected to an internal combustion engine, a catalyst into which an exhaust gas from the internal combustion engine is introduced, and a gas sensor having sensitivity to ammonia that outputs a detection value corresponding to a component of an exhaust gas that has passed through the catalyst. The catalyst deterioration diagnosis method includes the following steps. Monitoring of temporary increase of a detection value of the gas sensor is started, and thereby a temporarily increased amount of the detection value of the gas sensor is acquired. The monitoring is started when upshifting of the stepped transmission or pseudo-upshifting of the continuously variable transmission is performed. Whether or not the temporarily increased amount is larger than a threshold amount is determined.

The exhaust purification system of an internal combustion engine comprises: a catalyst arranged in an exhaust passage of the internal combustion engine and able to store oxygen; an ammonia detection device arranged in the exhaust passage at a downstream side of the catalyst in a direction of flow of exhaust; and an air-fuel ratio control part configured to control an air-fuel ratio of inflowing exhaust gas flowing into the catalyst to a target air-fuel ratio. The air-fuel ratio control part is configured to perform rich control making the target air-fuel ratio richer than a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio, and make the target air-fuel ratio leaner than the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio when an output value of the ammonia detection device rises to a reference value in the rich control.