Effects of continuously regenerating diesel particulate filters on regulated emissions and number-size distribution of particles emitted from a diesel engine

The effects of continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter (CRDPF) systems on regulated gaseous emissions, and number-size distribution and mass of particles emanated from a diesel engine have been investigated in this study. Two CRDPF units (CRDPF-1 and CRDPF-2) with different specifications were separately retrofitted to the engine running with European steady-state cycle (ESC). An electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI) was used for particle number-size distribution measurement and mass estimation. The conversion/reduction rate (R-CR) of hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) across CRDPF-1 was 83% and 96.3%, respectively. Similarly, the R-CR of HC and CO and across CRDPF-2 was 91.8% and 99.1%, respectively. The number concentration of particles and their concentration peaks; nuclei mode, accumulation mode and total particles; and particle mass were highly reduced with the CRDPF units. The nuclei mode particles at downstream of CRDPF-1 and CRDPF-2 decreased by 99.9% to 100% and 97.8% to 99.8% respectively; and the particle mass reduced by 73% to 92.2% and 35.3% to 72.4%, respectively, depending on the engine conditions. In addition, nuclei mode particles increased with the increasing of engine speed due to the heterogeneous nucleation initiated by the higher exhaust temperature, while accumulation mode particles were higher at higher loads due to the decrease in the air-to-fuel ratio (A/F) at higher loads.