Abstract: A process for the desulfurization of an engine fuel onboard a motor vehicle includes separating sulfur-containing components of the engine fuel by selective liquid-phase adsorption on an adsorption material. The adsorption material may be an oxide of Al, Mg, Si, or Ti that is doped with Ag.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for periodically desulphating a nitrogen oxide or sulphur oxide storage vessel of an exhaust emission control system of a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine, in which an engine exhaust emission containing reducing agent and oxygen is fed to the nitrogen oxide or sulphur oxide storage vessel by setting a rich fuel/air ratio for a first subset of the engine cylinders and a fuel/air ratio which is, in comparison, leaner for the other cylinders. The distance between the fuel/air ratio for the first subset of the engine cylinders and that for the second subset of the engine cylinders is set higher in an initial storage vessel heating-up phase than in the subsequent desulphation mode, and/or control errors of the entire fuel/air ratio are eliminated by a predefinable set point value by modifying the fuel/air ratio either of just the first subset or just the second subset of the engine cylinders. Used, for example, in motor vehicles.

Abstract: A method for operating an NOx trap for an internal combustion engine includes measuring parameters that influence the delay between the metering of a regenerating agent and its becoming effective in regenerating the NOx trap. Such parameters include the fuel film on an intake wall and the quantity of oxygen bonded in the catalytic converters upstream of the NOx trap. Measuring these parameters helps determine the quantity of regenerating agent or the number of working cycles required for regeneration of the NOx trap.

Abstract: The invention provides the replacing of the known "macroscopic" processes by a "microscopic" approach control strategy for an NOx accumulator. The regeneration phases after approximately 30 seconds of a lean operation, which last approximately one second in the state of the art, is replaced by a rich operating cycle after a sequence of lean ones. The number of lean operating cycles which can be carried out before a regenerating operating cycle depends on the combustion process of the internal-combustion engine as well as on the construction and the volume of the catalyst.