Experimental and computational study on the microwave energy based regeneration in diesel particulate filter for exhaust emission control

Abstract

The uncontrolled combustion and early-life failure of the Diesel Particulate Filter substrate during fuel-based regeneration has raised the requirement for an alternate regeneration technique. The Latest emission norms have made it a mandatory requirement to retrofit the Diesel Particulate Filtration system in the exhaust line of CI engines to bring down the Particulate emissions. In this work, a novel technique through application of microwave energy has been developed for active regeneration of soot particles accumulated in the filter channel. Modelling of soot layer formation and microwave regeneration were carried out using CFD software (COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS). Performance and emission characteristics of multi-cylinder CI engine were evaluated after retrofitting the developed after-treatment system comprising of Diesel Oxidation Catalysis (DOC) and microwave regeneration based Diesel Particulate Filtration (DPF) systems. Soot accumulation rate and regeneration rate were experimentally investigated at different engine loads and magnetron (microwave radiation source) power levels. The experimental results showed that the developed after-treatment system has an average filtration efficiency of 90% for brake specific particle number emissions and 55% for hydrocarbon emissions. The regeneration rate was observed to be a maximum of 0.21 g/min at 50% power levels owing to the non-linear behaviour of magnetron. Energy consumption pattern of other regeneration techniques has been compared with the developed microwave regeneration system. The effect of soot accumulation and regeneration on the morphology, microstructure, chemical composition and particle size of DPF substrate were examined using characterization studies like Scanning Electron Microscopy – Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), Fourier Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FTIR), Particle Size Analysis (PSA) and microscopic imaging.