Investigations Regarding the Causes of Filter Blocking in Diesel Powertrains

Developed by Rudolph Diesel in the 1890s, the diesel powertrain is used in many applications worldwide. For significant time the engine fuel source for these engines was petroleum diesel, until new legislation regarding emission reduction and smog mitigation saw the introduction of petroleum diesel and biodiesel (Fatty acid methyl ester; FAME) blends in the early 2000s. Since then there have been many instances of filters in diesel powertrains across heavy, light and off-road platforms becoming blocked with unidentified material, for example in the United States, Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Filters are designed to remove contaminants from the fuel system and as the filter becomes plugged it restricts the fuel flow resulting in loss of engine power and eventual breakdown. Understanding The nature of the material responsible for such blockages is clearly important to the industry and has been the subject of many studies. However, it is also clear from such work that not all the materials responsible for filter blocking have been identified. This work will describe the application of a variety of mass spectrometry techniques such as Fourier Transforms Ion Cyclotron Mass Spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS); Ultrahigh Performance Supercritical Fluid Mass Spectrometry. (UHPSFC-MS) to further identify the filter blocking materials in conjunction with more traditional analytical techniques for example Scanning Electron Microscopy, (SEM), X-ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy (EDS) and Fourier Transform Infra-red Microscopy (FTIRM).