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The negative effects of long-term exposure to soot and particulate matter emissions from diesel exhaust on the human health have been widely acknowledged due to the harmful substances that exhaust gas contains. Regulators have established strict programs to determine the performance and reliability of emissions after-treatment systems and devices. Tests were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of three diesel particulate filter (DPF) cleaning methods: 1) thermal and pneumatic cleaning, 2) ultrasonic cleaning, and 3) aqueous cleaning methods. A novel non-destructive method to quantify soot and ash deposits in the filters was developed, validated and used to determine the effectiveness of the identified cleaning methods. Given the number of different cleaning methods available, testing against a set of standard parameters provided accurate comparative results.