Measuring engine emissions in the Perkins Engines laboratory

For episode four in our Discovering the Power of Perkins series, Peter Haddock gets into a Lab Coat as he measures ‘particulate mass’ on filters from engines run in one of the numerous test bays at its facility in Peterborough. 

Peter: “This is a hugely important part of the engine design process. As to prove they have met the latest emissions standards, the Perkins team needs to be able to measure the tiny amounts of particulate mass by running an engine. 

“And because the particulates are so small, they can only be measured by very special equipment in laboratory conditions. 

“This just shows you how far we have come from the days of the bellowing black smoke from equipment onsite. And it also shows just how much investment has gone into designing and testing equipment.” 

For example, in our special YouTube series playlist here, https://youtu.be/3hzMzHKULQU?si=TKDVUgXoRsL3z8mz, you will be able to see Peter visiting the cold chamber and the noise chamber at Perkins. 

You will also be able to find out about how sensor technology and clever design are bringing even more enhancements to the power density of engines that are now getting even smaller. 

And look out for our future episodes where Peter talks about fluid dynamics and how some very clever engineers are using specialist software to virtually test out engine designs before they even get to prototypes.