Deactivation mechanism and associated valve events for divided exhaust boost (deb) engine

An engine, comprising:

• a plurality of pistons configured to be actuated by a plurality of combustion reactions, where the combustion reactions create exhaust gases;
• a plurality of cylinders, each cylinder being configured to house a corresponding piston of the plurality of pistons and form a containment boundary for a corresponding combustion reaction of the plurality of combustion reactions;
• a crankshaft configured to be actuated by the plurality of pistons;
• an intake manifold configured to supply a gas mixture to the plurality of cylinders;
• a plurality of intake valves that are collectively configured to control a flow rate of the gas mixture from the intake manifold to a corresponding cylinder of the plurality of cylinders;
• at least one fuel injector configured to inject fuel into one or more cylinders of the plurality of cylinders, where the fuel is combined with the gas mixture to form a fuel mixture that is combusted in the corresponding cylinder during the corresponding combustion reaction;
• an exhaust manifold comprising a blowdown line and a scavenge line, where the blowdown line comprises a plurality of blowdown line inlets that collectively receive a first portion of the exhaust gases from the plurality of cylinders and deliver the first portion of the exhaust gases to a turbine configured to be actuated by the exhaust gases, and the scavenge line comprises a plurality of scavenge line inlets that collectively receive a second portion of the exhaust gases from the plurality of cylinders and deliver the second portion of the exhaust gases to a catalytic conversion device;
• a plurality of exhaust valves that are collectively configured to control a flow rate of the exhaust gases passing from a corresponding cylinder of the plurality of cylinders to the exhaust manifold, where each exhaust valve of the plurality of exhaust valves is disposed at an associated blowdown line inlet of the plurality of blowdown line inlets or at an associated scavenge line inlet of the plurality of scavenge line inlets, and
• an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) configured to coordinate operations of the plurality of intake valves and the plurality of exhaust valves such that the exhaust valves associated with the blowdown line inlets are deactivated when the engine operates with a Brake Mean Effective Pressure (BMEP) value that is less than a first predetermined BMEP threshold.