A New Approach to Grip and Analyze Diesel Particulate Matter 2014-36-0381

The internal combustion engines emit combustion gases which contain nano and micrometric particles that are harmful to human health, causing deleterious damages to the human's respiratory system. In Brazil, heavy vehicles, such as buses and trucks, have diesel engines that work under high loads and run through metropolitan areas or in intense traffic flow roads. They are considered, nowadays, the main solid particles emitter in several World's areas. There are already standard systems to analyze these particles quantitative and qualitatively at high prices collected from vehicle gases emissions in places such as bus stops. This paper presents a new method which retains solid micrometric particulate matter emitted by diesel engine. It is simple and has a relatively low cost. A sheet of textile element was encapsulated in a system for gripping micrometric particles emitted by diesel single-cylinder engine operating in a bench and coupled with a electrical generator. A blend of S10 diesel oil and 5% biodiesel acquired in a Brazilian gas station was used in all the tests, in a total of 20 discontinuous hours around 333 Watts, 2,700 cpm. Emission gases had been collected in a new textile collector each time at a rate of one sample by hour. After the tests were performed analysis with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and microanalysis by EDS (Energy Dispersive X-Rays Spectroscopy) in order to visualize and characterize the particles. The efficiency of this method was showed by the spectrograms analysis obtained, the SEM's pictures and the mass variation of the textile elements used. The results were treated under the light of recent papers published in Engineering, Environmental Sciences and Pneumology.