renewables natural gas petroleum electricity regenerative hydrogen sunfuel® cellulosic ethanol synfuels diesel petrol electric drive fuel cell ccs® hybrid drive tdi®/fsi®/dsg® 25
Read more about „foundation chair “ at: www.volkswagen- sustainability.com –> Environment –> Powertrains –> Hybrid Vehicles
particularly on optimised combustion processes. Secondly, it also requires the use of downstream emission control systems. Throughout the Group, we offer diesel particulate filters either as standard or optional equipment for almost all new TDI-engined vehicles. These filters have been long-term-tested and in all cases are specially developed and matched to the requirements of the individual vehicle and its engine. For older vehicles, we also offer a wide range of retrofit solutions.
In the US, the Volkswagen and Audi brands have launched the BLUETEC initiative, in association with Mercedes-Benz. The aim of the partnership is to establish the BLUETEC label as a badge for clean and fuel-efficient diesel cars and in par- ticular to significantly reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. Our diesel engines will in future meet the strict US emissions standards and in terms of fuel economy will offer an alter- native to hybrid drive.
In conjunction with BLUETEC, our “Clean TDI” concept combines a diesel engine with NOXaftertreatment, reducing
nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 90%. The first such model to be introduced will be the Jetta Clean TDI in 2008.
The NOXreduction technologies will comprise an NOX
adsorber catalyst or, for larger models, an SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) catalyst. The SCR catalyst injects a vari- able amount of urea into the exhaust gas. On entering the hot exhaust stream, the urea is converted into ammonia, which then reduces the nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and water. NOXadsorber catalysts are dependent on the avail-
ability of extremely low-sulphur fuel, due to be introduced in the US in autumn 2007.26)
Traffic noise
A further important goal of the Volkswagen Group is to reduce traffic noise. Research work on this topic is carried out at the Wolfsburg Acoustics Centre. Our aim is to make refinements to the powertrain, comprising the engine, transmission, drive shafts, air intake system and exhaust system, and also in the area of tyre/road noise. The latter is an especially important focus, given that this noise source now accounts for 90% of total road traffic noise. The power- train components meanwhile have already become much quieter, due to the use of technologies such as innovative engine management, better silencers and engine compart- ment encapsulation. Since 1980, we have reduced the aver- age noise emissions of our new vehicles by 8 dB (A), which is equivalent to an 84% reduction in sound energy.
Noise emissions are a prime concern when selecting orig- inal-equipment tyres. The Volkswagen brand therefore uses products which take their lead from the German Blue Angel eco-label system. And Audi only fits tyres after first carrying out an in-house test procedure which is considerably more exacting than the legal requirements.
The Fuel-Saver courses offered by Volkswagen in asso- ciation with the German Society for Nature Conservation (NABU – see page 57f.) likewise help to reduce traffic noise. Fuel-saving, low-rev driving is quieter driving – which goes to show that driver behaviour too plays an important part in reducing traffic noise.27)
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Read more about „Reduction of Pollutant Emissions“ at: www.volkswagen-sustainability.com –> Environment –> Pollutant Emissions
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Read more about „Reduction of Traffic Noise“ at:
The Volkswagen Group takes an integrated approach to envi- ronmental protection in which not only the environmental impacts of its products are considered, evaluated and min- imised, but also those of its production and logistics process- es. A systematic continuous improvement process is imple- mented across all production sectors.
Environmentally compatible production starts with product development, since decisions taken at this stage – for exam- ple on design and choice of materials – also influence the environmental impact of subsequent production and recycling processes.
To meet our process-oriented environmental protection goals, we depend heavily on employee involvement. Environmental Officers coordinate environmental protection measures at the individual plants while at all German plants, every department which operates facilities and equipment with potential environmental impacts also has its own spe- cially trained environmental specialist on hand to act as the point of contact in all environment-related matters. The environmental specialists help to create a stronger link between the machine operators and the Environmental Officers.
Training to promote factory-wide awareness of process- oriented environmental protection issues includes training programmes at the Environment Service Centre for our trainees and apprentices and continuing professional devel- opment courses for our other employees. In 2007, the inter- nal Volkswagen Environmental Award was presented for the fourth time. The Award was created as a joint initiative of the company and the Works Council, and its purpose is to commend and reward employees who take a proactive approach to environmental protection in their own particu- lar sector.
At the practical level, our process-oriented environmental protection work focuses on water and wastewater, air, energy and waste.
Water and wastewater
Production processes in the automotive industry consume large quantities of freshwater. To conserve valuable drinking water resources, all our plants have therefore been fitted with state-of-the-art technologies designed to significantly reduce water consumption. We invest heavily in this area, focusing particularly on the widespread use of closed-loop systems and the use of rainwater and process water.
A broad-based programme of measures has had the effect of reducing the amount of water the Group needs to build one vehicle from 6.9 m3in 2002 to 5.5 m3in 2006.
In 2006, amongst other measures, Audi completed con- struction of a new stormwater retention basin at its Ingol- stadt plant. This basin has a capacity of 2,900 m3, and brings the total number of stormwater basins at the site to five, and their total capacity to more than 13,000 m3. The water is treated and fed into the process water system.
Wastewater contamination is minimised by using efficient treatment processes. However, the complexity of the water management systems in operation at our sites is increasing. We use a substance flow management system for wastewater to provide significantly enhanced transparency and offer further improvement opportunities for coordination of recy- cling processes and treatment technologies between the var- ious production facilities within a plant. This also allows us to gear planning processes even more closely to economic and ecological considerations, with particular reference to minimising pollution, closed-loop water systems and recycling of process materials.