Implications of Particulate and Precursor Compounds Formed During High-Efficiency Clean Combustion in a Diesel Engine

Advanced diesel combustion modes offer the promise of reduced engine-out particulate and nitrogen oxide emissions, thereby reducing the demand on post-combustion emission control devices. In this activity, a light-duty diesel engine was operated in conventional and advanced combustion modes. The advanced combustion modes investigated correspond to both clean (i.e., low PM and low NO_X) and clean efficient combustion. The low-NO_X, low-PM mode is considered an intermediate condition and the low-NO_X, low-PM efficient mode is referred to as high efficiency clean combustion (HECC). Particulate and gaseous emissions were analyzed during all of these experiments. The detailed exhaust chemistry analysis provided significant new information to improving our understanding of these modes as well as identifying potentially important unregulated emissions.