Being an importer of truck engines, and their technology, makes Australia deeply vested in the changes to engine technology that inevitably find their way to our shores.
Right now, the key driver behind engine technology advancements is emissions legislation changes in both the USA and Europe, where Australia sources most of its heavy duty on-road diesel engines.
Changes in engine technology, after all, have a flow on effect to the lubrication requirements.
DPFs are one such area, having been introduced as part of tightening emission legislation applied to engine oils which have since required a chemical change to the lubricant additive technology.
In December 2022 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued legislation that would solicit stringent emissions standards for engine manufacturers to meet.
These regulations will come into effect for engines in Model Years 2027 and later according to Matt Urbanak, Shell Lubricants Technologist.
“While it is still three years away, engine manufacturers are working hard on technology to meet the new standards,” he says.
“The new standards are another step change in reducing emissions from heavy duty diesel engines and include a 75 per cent reduction on Nitrous Oxide (NOx) emissions, and a 50 per cent reduction in Particulate Matter (PM).”
Matt Urbanak leads a team whose job it is to look at future engine technology changes, and then, focusing on the lubricant technology field specifically for heavy duty diesel engine oils, create formulations to help engines perform better with the new technology.
“The EPA are also phasing in stricter greenhouse gas emission standards, and placing more emphasis on service life of components,” he says. “Aftertreatment systems such as AdBlue systems and DPFs must achieve a longer service life.”
In the USA this will extend out from around 435,000 miles to 800,000 miles. When weighed up, these changes mean heavy duty diesel engine oil will also need to change to help keep engines operating as their manufacturer intended.
To that end, a number of US industry bodies collaborated to request a new engine oil category, called Proposed Category 12 (PC-12). PC-12 was formally endorsed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) in early 2022.
In future, it is widely anticipated that it will become the most modern oil standard according to Matt.
“The current oil category, Proposed Category 11 [PC-11] was introduced in 2016 and covers the familiar names of API CK-4 and API FA-4 engine oils,” he says.
“CK-4 was intended to cover engines manufactured around the 2016 timeframe, while the FA-4 standard was designed to ‘future-proof’ the oil category, to help protect more fuel-efficient engines that at the time we knew were coming out in around 2020-2022. That has played out in the market as OEMs search for better fuel economy, more power and longer oil drain intervals, and existing oil was not designed to withstand the requirements of those engines.”
Australia has recently launched a brand-new Shell Rimula FA-4 oil formulation to coincide with the most modern truck engines arriving in country.
The new PC-12 oil category is expected to bring about several significant changes. One of the most straight forward ways for an OEM to realise the emissions reduction targets is to burn less fuel.
OEMs, as Matt explains, look at a wide range of technologies to help an engine achieve this objective, and one key method to achieve it is to use a lower viscosity engine oil.
“Lower viscosity engines oils mean less internal friction, meaning the engine expends less energy on internal friction, leaving more energy available to drive the truck wheels,” he says.
“We have seen reduced viscosities under the API FA-4 standard, where 5W-30 and 10W-30 oils are now common. Under the new PC-12 category, OEMs are coming to us asking to provide even lower viscosity formulations, such as 5W-20 and 0W-20 oils.”
One of the chief roles of Matt’s team is to formulate oils that can meet these lower viscosities.
But that’s not all. They are also asked to provide engine protection against wear and deposit build up, greater resistance to high heat, offer extended oil drain intervals, and stay in-grade across a very long oil drain interval.
The new oil category, of course, requires very high-quality base oils. An organisation the size of Shell has access to commercial quantities of consistent, high quality base oil.
“One of our biggest advantages at Shell is that we have some really advanced base oil manufacturing plants across the world,” says Matt.
“Base oil makes up around 80 per cent of the ingredients in a drum of oil, so getting that part right is a critical first step.”
Shell works closely with its additive suppliers to develop what is called an additive package, which contains the necessary chemical components to help provide the desired levels of wear, deposit, and oxidation protection in the harsh engine environment.
These formulations are tested in a series of standardised engine tests and laboratory bench tests to assess that they meet a minimum level of protection before they are commercialised.
There may also be specific field testing that occurs on the formulations to assess performance in real world operating conditions.
Ultimately, that combination of base oils and additive package, according to Matt, becomes the formulation which Shell will eventually commercialise in its Rimula product line.
“While this seems simple, this testing process can take several years to complete, which is why development work for the upcoming PC-12 category is starting so early,” he says.
OEMs approach Shell regularly seeking oil formulations that they can test in trial engines. This will precipitate discussions focused, post hoc, on engine characteristics and performance objectives.
Following this Shell will make a recommendation on a formulation that it considers suitable.
The OEM will then trial that formulation to ensure it meets the requirements, sometimes over millions of test miles.
“We work closely with the OEMs to refine our formulations using cutting edge technologies to maximise engine performance and protection for their latest engines,” explains Matt.
“Gone are the days where an oil will just do the job across lots of engines. New diesel engines are very complex, very efficient and have very tight tolerances, and our Shell products need to mirror that, so that end-users know that the truck they’ve invested a lot of money in is being protected by products designed for that application.”
