Search Results

A modular particulate trap system for buses, trucks and other applications consiting of honeycomb traps and an electrical regeneration system has been designed and tested on a test bench and in a city bus. For regeneration, the soot is ignited at the entrance of the trap channel by electric heaters. After ignition, the soot burns self-supporting without further energy supply. Regeneration is possible over the whole engine map. The electrical energy consumption of the heaters for a city bus is in average below 100 W. The filtration efficiency of the system including regeneration is about 80 % during transient city driving. During regeneration, appr. 98 % of the accumulated hydrocarbons adsobed to the soot in the trap are burned off the initiated combustion front. Additionally, the odor of the diesel engine exhaust gas behind the trap is lowered at low engine load even during regeneration.

Particulate emissions from diesel engines mainly consist of soot and high-boiling hydrocarbons (volatile fraction). To reduce the volatile fraction different precious metals and their combinations are tested in traps and supports especially at low loads. A sufficient catalyst's efficiency at low exhaust-gas temperatures (low load) requires a large active catalyst surface. Due to the soot in the diesel exhaust-gas, the catalyst can be covered by a soot layer reducing the catalyst's efficiency. The accumulated soot in the trap must be oxidized. Nonprecious metal catalysts are able to lower the soot ignition temperature. The reduction in ignition temperature depends on the catalyst material used. The influence of the catalyst's concentration and the use of an additional washcoat are also investigated.