Design, Construction and Performance Testing of a Cyclonic Separator to Control Particulate Pollution from Diesel Engine Exhaust

A simple, low cost, cyclonic separator has been designed, fabricated and tested to separate the particulate matter from diesel engine exhaust. It has been found that within the range of design/rated rpm, efficiency of the cyclone increases with increase in torque. However the efficiency of the separator was found to decrease as the engine was run at a speed higher than the design speed. The maximum efficiency of the cyclonic separator was obtained as 85% at 1500 rpm with 28.2 N-m torque. As evident from the result, it was possible to reduce most mass of the particulate matter from the diesel exhaust under the above condition without any change in engine performance and back pressure.