Assessment of the Performance of Diesel Particulate Filter Systems with Fuel Additives for Enhanced Regeneration Characteristics

Diesel particulate filter (DPF) are well known as a developing form of exhaust after-treatment for compression ignition engines. Subjected to extensive testing in experimental form, DPFs have yet to achieve widespread application in regular use on production road vehicles, despite their potential for delivering reductions of typically 90% in diesel exhaust particulate emissions.

Tests have shown that different additives are effective in enhancing performance in a range of DPF types, and on engines of different configurations. Efforts have been made to correlate performance with engine operating regime, by linking soot particulate condition to the frequency of regeneration. A performance index has been developed to try to predict regeneration characteristics with additive treated fuel.

The work has shown that there are engine operating conditions producing soot which is less likely to burn off in the DPF. However, these less favourable engine operating conditions change with engine technology. The latest generation of engines are characterised by electronic control of engine management functions. This facility offers the possibility of control linked to DPF back pressure/soot loading, to manage engine operation to produce enhanced regeneration conditions in the DPF, thus combining an increasingly established particulate control strategy with very high specific performance and fuel efficiency.