A Digital Laboratory for the Measurement of Physicochemical Parameters Relevant to Diesel Emission Control Simulation

Athanasios  Konstandopoulos, APT Lab, CPERI/CERTH

ORAL PRESENTATION:

Athanasios G. Konstandopoulos and Nickolas Vlachos

Aerosol & Particle Technology Laboratory, CERTH/CPERI
PO Box 361 Thermi 57001, Thessaloniki GREECE and
Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University, GREECE

Tel. + 30 231 0498192, Fax + 30 231 0498190
E-mail: agk@cperi.certh.gr

Abstract

Current technical targets such as embedding multiple catalytic functions in a porous Wall-Flow filter, implementing high filtration efficiency membranes for meeting particle number limits and addressing potential future challenges in particulate control from non-Diesel engines, continue to drive the development of porous substrates in different directions.  This work describes a Digital Laboratory for rapidly characterizing porous materials at the microscale and measuring required input parameters for the simulation of Diesel Emission control systems where such porous materials are embedded.  The Digital Laboratory allows both physical characterization of the porous structures (e.g. porosimetry curves, permeability, filtration efficiency, structure of soot aggregate derived deposits, etc) as well as chemical characterizations related to supported reactions by the pore structure involving gaseous species, catalytic coatings and deposited soot aggregates.  Existing porous materials as well as new ones may be created, functionalized (e.g. by adding catalytic coatings, storage functions, membranes, etc) assessed and selected for further testing by higher level emission control device simulators, shortening thus the development cycle.  Validation of the Digital Laboratory results is obtained by comparison to samples characterized by the corresponding experimental techniques.