Description
Manufacturers of diesel-fueled vehicles are working feverishly on a filter concept that will decrease the emission of diesel soot. Standard impedance filters can, over time, become clogged and must then be regenerated. This requires additives and additional maintenance time and costs.
During the course of a joint project, scientists at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society have discovered that soot particles from modern commercial vehicle motors are structured in a totally different manner than has been generally assumed: Through improved combustion, substantially smaller, fullerene-like soot particles are formed. These are much more reactive than soot from earlier generations of engines and can therefore be broken down through the nitrogen oxide that is contained in exhaust.
Based on the basic researchers' findings, engineers at filter manufacturer EMITEC and MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG have developed a new, open system that does not have to rely on renewal and additives: The "soot trap" holds back the soot particles long enough until they have been burned off by the nitrogen oxide of the exhaust and turned into carbon dioxide. The expulsion of soot is consequently reduced by up to 90 percent.
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