Experimental characterization of ultrafine particle emissions from a light-duty diesel engine equipped with a standard DPF

A detailed experimental characterization of the particle emissions of a EURO 5 light-duty Diesel engine, equipped with a wall flow Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF), is presented. Particle Size Distributions (PSDs) in the range from 4.5 up to 160 nm have been measured at the engine exhaust by means of a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer, during both DPF accumulation and regeneration phase. During accumulation, the size-dependent DPF removal efficiency has been evaluated by PSDs measurements at both inlet and outlet of the filter. The maximum efficiency was found in the range 10-40 nm. Nevertheless, the DPF ensures a strong reduction in the emissions for the sub-23 nm nanoparticles too, with an efficiency between 91–95%. Unless for the warm-up phase, the engine operating conditions do not have a great impact on the particles emitted due to the high DPF removal efficiency. The measurements carried out during the regeneration phase evidenced that particle emissions strongly depend on DPF temperature. Actually, once the soot burnout temperature is reached, soot oxidation starts and a great amount of particles in terms of PN is released. Overall, PSDs showed an increase in particle number concentration up to two order of magnitude with respect to the emissions measured during the accumulation phase.