Effect of a retrofitted metallic microfiber partial flow diesel particulate filter on a light duty diesel vehicle particle emission characteristics

This study was conducted two distinct experiments, using a light-duty diesel vehicle at various engine speeds and loads as well as the new European driving cycle (NEDC) comparing commercial diesel fuel (B7) and pure biodiesel (B100). The NEDC involves a combination of urban and extra urban driving conditions. It aims to study a diesel vehicle's thermal efficiency as well as its gaseous and particulate matter (PM) emissions. This involves comparing results with and with no diesel oxidative catalyst (DOC) and a partial flow diesel particulate filter (PDPF) system. The surface morphology, micro- and nanostructure of a diesel vehicle's PM were also examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to determine nanostructural and dimensional changes after mounting a DOC-PDPF system. Comparison of B7 and B100 combustion showed that B100 had around 1 % increase in brake thermal efficiency (BTE) at 1500 and 2000 rpm compared to B7 since B100 is a more oxygenated biofuel. At 2500 rpm, similar BTE values were observed. Introduction of a DOC-PDPF system resulted in an approximately 1 % BTE reduction for both fuels. This was due to greater friction losses caused by backpressure from the DOC-PDPF system. Increased exhaust backpressure was progressive, ranging from 1 kPa at idle speed to 6 kPa at high engine speeds for both tested fuels. The DOC-PDPF system respectively minimized PM emissions and particle numbers (PNs) by more than 50 % and 35 % for B7 and 71 % and 31 % for B100. These results are average values under the various phases of NEDC testing. A 30 % decrease in PM and a 44 % reduction in PNs under the overall test cycle were found when B100 was tested compared to B7. The soot primary particle size was reduced from 34.69 to 29.08 nm and the carbon fringe length diminished from 1.25 to 0.949 nm at different pre- and post-DOC-PDPF locations. This was due to partial oxidation on the surfaces of the PDPF metallic microstructure. PM undergoes simultaneous partial oxidation after passing through the DOC-PDPF system, as confirmed by TGA analysis.