John Deere Rolls out Final Tier 4 Strategy
Company announces integrated engine system that will add selective catalytic reduction.
Willie Vogt 
Published: Mar 2, 2012
The big engine question has been answered: What will Deere do to meet Final Tier 4 emissions for 75 horsepower and higher machines? They'll add selective catalytic reduction to the technology already in use on Interim Tier 4 engines. The announcement was made during the Commodity Classic in Nashville, Friday morning.
Deere has worked emissions down as part of tightening emissions regulations impacting all companies. The John Deere approach includes a diesel oxidation catalyst, diesel particulate filter and exhaust gas recirculation. And now the company is adding selective catalytic reduction to a system they're calling the John Deere Integrated Emissions Control System.
LOW-EMISSION MACHINE: The new PowerTech PSS 9 liter engine from John Deere - to be introduced in mid-2013 - will meet tougher emissions standards by adding selective catalytic reduction to the other emission technology the company already uses. The new standard, in effect for 2014 for engines 75 hp and higher, requires an added 80% reduction in NOx over current Interim Tier 4 engines. Geoff Stigler, market manager for worldwide power systems, detailed the new system noting the company's "building block" strategy. "We were the first to certify a 9 liter PowerTech PSX engine to meet Interim Tier 4 in March 2010," he notes. "We were producing engines that met new emissions rules early."
The company has 20,000 IT4 engines in the field today and it has been collecting information from those engines through the JDLink system. Steigler notes the company has more than 2 million customer hours on the existing system.
"In each transition reducing emissions the new engine has offered better performance than the engine it replaced," Stigler notes. "To meet those higher goals we have integrated the engine and drivetrain, including the components we build, the axles, transmission and the engine."
With the new FT4 system, Stigler says the company will offer "fluid efficiency". He showed data from the company's IT4 engines which offered better fuel economy even as they cleaned up the air. "Bottom line is we excelled with cooled exhaust gas recirculation and the diesel particulate filter," he says. "The new system will incorporate selective catalytic reduction with those other technologies."
Engine changes
Looking under the hood at the new engine, Stigler showed how the added SCR system will be incorporated into the engine. Inside the engine, the company is boosting the fuel pressure on the common rail by 30 to 40% depending on the load. "This higher fuel pressure will increase performance and reduce fuel consumption, and it should help reduce particulate emissions," Stigler says.
While no actual fuel economy numbers are available, Stigler says company projections show the system will offer competitive fuel efficiency.
As part of the "fluid efficiency" information, the new Deere FT4 system will use only 1 to 3% diesel exhaust fluid in that SCR system - this is lower than estimates from competitors. "We're able to do that because we are still using the exhaust gas recirculation and the diesel particulate filter. We are reducing the exhaust gas recirculation in the new engines, but this combination helps us reach that efficiency."
Testing is a big deal to any company competing in the ag market these days. Deere is putting the new engines through 700,000-plus hours of both bench and in-machine testing to analyze component durability.
The new engines will be available in mid-2013 with the first machines introduced soon after. Due to the added components, the new engine may require changes to the design of tractors and other machines that will use the new machines. The first FT4 engine with the technology is the 9 liter PowerTech PSS.
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