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Ethanol has long been a fuel of considerable interest for use as an automotive fuel in spark ignition (SI) internal combustion engines. In recent years, concerns over oil supplies, sustainability and geopolitical factors have lead multiple jurisdictions to mandate the blending of ethanol into standard gasoline. The impact of blend ethanol content on gaseous emissions has been widely studied; particulate matter emissions have received somewhat less attention, despite these emissions being regulated in the USA. Currently, in the EU particulate matter emissions from SI engines are partially regulated - only vehicles featuring direct injection SI engines are subject to emissions limits. A range of experiments was conducted to determine the impact of fuel ethanol content on the emissions of solid pollutants from Euro 5 passenger cars.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the quantitative impact of fuel sulfur content on particulate oxidation catalyst (POC) functionality, focusing on soot emission reduction and the ability to regenerate. Studies were conducted on fuels containing three different levels of sulfur, covering the range of 6 to 340 parts per million, for a light-duty application. The data presented in this paper provide further insights into the specific issues associated with usage of a POC with fuels of higher sulfur content. A 48-hour loading phase was performed for each fuel, during which filter smoke number, temperature and back-pressure were all observed to vary depending on the fuel sulfur level. The Fuel Sulfur Content (FSC) affected also soot particle size distributions (particle number and size) so that with FSC 6 ppm the soot particle concentration was lower than with FSC 65 and 340, both upstream and downstream of the POC.