An Approach to Clean Particulates From Diesel Emissions: EDPS Baseline Prototype Testing Equipment and Methodology

Abstract

Diesel exhaust particulate matter (PM) is deadly to humans, animals and plants so the future of diesel engine is uncertain. Alternative powered vehicles have major limitations and costly. Recent developments to limit PM emissions have significant disadvantages to the point where they cannot be considered to be reliable long term technical and economical solutions. Electrostatic filtration could be used together with existing filters or as a standalone system. The most popular method of decreasing PM emissions is by the use of ceramic diesel particulate filters which is not efficient at filtering ultrafine particulates. Electrostatic filtration is a promising approach which can capture ultrafine particulates which could be used in conjunction with ceramic DPFs, metallic flow through filters (FTF) or, ideally as a standalone system. Development of prototype electrostatic diesel particulate filtration systems (EDPS) requires reliable testing. Prototyping needs quick, repeatable and affordable results to validate theories and a solution had to be developed. This paper presents the development of the EDPS prototype testing procedures and equipment with preliminary test results. By repurposing proven test equipment for the use of exhaust sampling, a test rig and a repeatable procedure for testing prototype filters were developed with low initial and ongoing costs.