Soot removal from diesel engine exhaust using a rotating fluidized bed filter

Abstract

A horizontal rotating fluidized bed filter was used to capture soot from diesel engine exhaust, achieving mass filtration efficiencies exceeding 80%. In the packed bed mode, the filtration efficiency increased with increasing gas flow rate at all rotating speeds. A mathematical model developed for this radial in-flow configuration was used to predict filtration efficiency as a function of superficial gas velocity. The resulting theoretical curve provided an upper bound for the data, exhibiting the same trend at higher rotating speeds. At low rotating speed, the efficiency after fluidization decreased with increasing gas velocity due to bubble bypassing.