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Principal Investigator: Lien C. Yang
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
15 April 1981
ARB Contract No. A0-047-32 (Full Report)
ABSTRACT
This report summarizes the results of a research and development effort on a new technique which can destroy
the particulates produced by a diesel engine powered vehicle. Close-spaced, comb-shaped electrodes are charged
alternately by high voltage of opposite polarities. When the engine exhaust carrying the particulates flows through
the electrodes, the particulates trigger spark discharges in the latter, which in turn destroy the particulate.
A prototype hardware study has demonstrated the following:
(1) The technique is very effective in destroying the particulates if they have agglomerated into large size particles,
several micrometers or larger in diameter. Destruction efficiency as high as 70 percent has been observed. This
figure could be further improved if the hardware design is optimized.
(2) The major product of the destruction process is the carbon dioxide. The amount of other gaseous products such
as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, NOx, and ozone produced by the process is small. The rates of these emissions
by a full-scale particulates destruction device are estimated to be 20 to 100 times smaller than those specified
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the light duty vehicles.
(3) The electrical power required to operate such a destruction device is small and is affordable by light duty
vehicles. For a moderate particulate emission or destruction rate, the electrical power required can be made
to be 50 watts or less. This high power efficiency is attributed to the release of energy by the particulates
through their own fast combustion.
(4) A key problem has been identified; that is, how to dynamically agglomerate the particulates. Several ideas,
such as self-release filters and a fluidized bed particulates agglomerator, have been explored and further effort
is required in order to perfect a device for the agglomeration of the particulates.
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