Launched in 2022, AeroSolfd, a HORIZON Europe project, aims to advance clean urban mobility by developing affordable and sustainable retrofit solutions for gasoline vehicles. This three-year initiative addresses not only tailpipe emissions, but also brake emissions and pollution in semi-enclosed environments. Within AeroSolfd, the Swiss association VERT focuses on reducing tailpipe emissions using state-of-the-art Gasoline Particulate Filter (GPF) technology featuring an uncoated CORNING ceramic multicell wall-flow filter.
VERT, in partnership with HJS, CPK, BFH, and CORNING, developed and tested a GPF-retrofit system at Technology Readiness Level 8 (TRL 8). Results demonstrate over 99% filtration efficiency for particles smaller than 500 nm on standard (WLTC and RDE) and real-world driving cycles. Fifty gasoline vehicles (GDI and PFI) were retrofitted across Germany, Switzerland, Israel, and Denmark. Over a 6- to 8-month operational period, no issues were observed with filter regeneration, increased fuel consumption, or secondary emissions. Furthermore, an extensive PN-PTI testing campaign, involving 1,000 randomly selected Swiss gasoline vehicles, is evaluating real-world emissions. This campaign has revealed the "dirty-tail" phenomenon, where only 4–6% of the vehicles (high emitters) produce orders of magnitude more particle emissions than the rest of the fleet, increasing the average fleet pollution level tenfold above the legal limit. Final results from the VERT GPF-retrofit project, the PN-PTI campaign, and the analysis of dirty-tail effects will be presented.