Clean Diesels
14 Mar, 2008 10:51 am
Modern diesel cars are not only quieter than their predecessors but also release considerably fewer exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. The filters for heavy-duty, construction and off-road vehicles are not yet state-of-the-art. A new diesel particulate filter technology will soon teach even these vehicles to give up smoking.
The drawback of these square honeycombs is that the angular bonded block has to be ground into a cylindrical shape at the end of production, thus wasting valuable material. What is more, this smooth finishing takes time and requires expensive machinery. Together with filter manufacturer CleanDieselCeramics CDC and sponsored by Saxony’s economics ministry, developers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden have developed a honeycomb structure with a different geometry. Rather than being rectangular, it takes an irregular four-cornered shape. This allows a wide variety of filter geometries to be created – even close-to-cylindrical ones. Grinding is no longer necessary.
An added advantage of this development is the altered geometry of the channels. Usually, the gas flows into the filter through four-sided channels. The Dresden researchers have opted for a smaller, triangular cross-section. This enlarges the filter surface in the tiny channels. The triangular shape is also more stable, and the filter is less sensitive to lateral pressure.
The partners in this venture have tested and optimized the production method on a pilot production line at the IKTS – and also tested the third innovation, a silicon carbide ceramic developed at the IKTS. The advantage of this latter innovation is that the researchers can easily and precisely adjust the size of the pores for optimum filtration of the soot particles.
“As far as the performance and quality of our new development is concerned, we can hold our own against anything on the market,” says IKTS project manager Jörg Adler.
The up-and-coming firm CDC is currently building its first plant near Dresden. From spring of this year, about 40,000 filters will be produced there annually and installed in construction machinery as an upgrade kit.
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3 comment(s)
[1]
Comment by David B. Benson
14 Mar, 2008 07:10 pm
It would be very good to require these on boat and ship diesels as well.
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[2]
Comment by Don Hirschberg
16 Mar, 2008 07:08 am
Isn't this a commercial ad for a product? Perhaps these folks make and sell a good filter. But there would be no increase in thermal efficiency nor a decrease in CO2 emisions..
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[3]
Comment by Rearviewed
18 Apr, 2009 09:23 am
I totally agree with this. You could really see the big difference from modern diesel cars to the traditional diesel ones.
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