Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
||
| Reference Number | C2/P21 | |
| Title | Treatment of Emissions from Gas Powered Vehicles (GASPART) | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Energy Efficiency(Transport) 5%; Not Energy Related 90%; Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Oil and gas combustion) 5%; |
|
| Research Types | Applied Research and Development 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry) 50%; PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Physics) 50%; |
|
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 100% | |
| Principal Investigator |
Project Contact No email address given Johnson Matthey plc |
|
| Award Type | Standard | |
| Funding Source | DfT | |
| Start Date | 03 January 2000 | |
| End Date | 31 January 2003 | |
| Duration | 37 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £100,000 | |
| Industrial Sectors | Transport | |
| Region | London | |
| Programme | DfT Cleaner fuels and vehicles | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Project Contact , Johnson Matthey plc (100.000%) |
| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | Existing on-board particulate-destruction technologies have been developed specifically for diesel exhaust. These are either inappropriate or unproven for the control of nanoparticles. Therefore, the objectives of this project are to: * evaluate a shortlist of trapping methods that could be expected to be effective and practicable; * evaluate potential methods for destroying trapped particulates; and * combine the best trapping and destruction methods in a prototype device and test on a v eh icle. | |
| Abstract | European legislation governing the emissions of particles is based upon a mass metric and applies to diesel engined vehicles only. Vehicle and system manufacturers have responded to the challenges of increasingly stringent legislation by developing improved combustion and fuelling systems and using exhaust after-treatment systems. These developments have reduced significantly both the particulate mass and number of emissions, but this same technology does not work on petrol engines, which areknown to emit significant numbers of small particulates. This is increasingly important as the effects on human health may be due to particle size rather than total mass. Summary of results In this project, numerical studies of nanoparticle behaviour in exhaust pipe configurations have indicated that the use of cooling to encourage deposition by thermophoresis will be less effective than the use of electrostatic fields to charge and then transport particulate to the pipe wall. Onthe basis of these results, a laboratory electrostatic precipitator has been constructed, and is undergoing tests. As a benchmark, the trapping efficiency of a cordierite wall-flow filter has been measured as a function of the size of artificially generated carbon particles, at different gas temperatures and over a range of exposure times. Particulate-destruction experiments have shown that exposure of small soot particles to either microwaves or an electrically generated plasma can be highly effective. However, these methods are difficult to control, and their impact is very sensitive to the other components of the exhaust gas. Overall, a catalytic solution seems most feasible. A suitable catalyst has been identified, which can make use of all the oxidants present in the exhaust gas at realistic temperatures. Furthermore, the catalyst appears to have the required durability and fuel sulphur tolerance for on-board use. It is currently being re-formulated as a coating, whichwill be applied to the interior surfaces of the particulate trap. |
|
| Publications | (none) |
|
| Final Report | (none) |
|
| Added to Database | 07/02/08 | |
