A Study on Fluidized Bed-Type Particulate Filter for Diesel Engines

A fluidized bed-type diesel particulate filter (DPF) was applied to filter particulate matter (PM) in diesel engine exhaust gas. The effects of the fluidized bed design parameters, such as gas velocity, bed particle size, and height, on PM and smoke filtration efficiencies, and pressure drop were experimentally investigated using a single-cylinder direct injection (DI) diesel engine. High PM filtration efficiency and low pressure drop were achieved with the DPF, especially at a lower gas velocity. The PM filtration efficiency was higher with a smaller bed particle size at the lower gas velocity; however, it drastically decreased with an increase in gas velocity due to excessive fluidization of the bed particles. Increase in bed height led to higher PM filtration efficiency while causing an increase in pressure drop. The theoretical work was also conducted for further investigation of the effects of the above-mentioned parameters on PM filtration. These results indicated that diffusion filtration was the dominant mechanism for PM filtration under the conditions of this study and that the decrease in PM filtration efficiency at high gas velocity was caused by a deterioration in the diffusion filtration. The bed particle diameter and the bed height should be optimized in order to obtain a high filtration efficiency without increasing the DPF size.