Effects of continuously regenerating diesel particulate filters on regulated emissions and number-size distribution of particles emitted from a diesel engine

The effects of continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter （CRDPF） systems on regulated gaseous emissions, and number-size distribution and mass of particles emanated from a diesel engine have been investigated in this study. Two CRDPF units （CRDPF-1 and CRDPF-2） with different specifications were separately retrofitted to the engine running with European steady-state cycle （ESC）. An electrical low pressure impactor （ELPI） was used for particle number-size distribution measurement and mass estimation. The conversion/reduction rate （RcR） of hydrocarbons （HC） and carbon monoxide （CO） across CRDPF-1 was 83% and 96.3%, respectively. Similarly, the RCR of HC and CO and across CRDPF-2 was 91.8% and 99.1%, respectively. The number concentration of particles and their concentration peaks; nuclei mode, accumulation mode and total particles; and particle mass were highly reduced with the CRDPF units. The nuclei mode particles at downstream of CRDPF-1 and CRDPF-2 decreased by 99.9% to 100% and 97.8% to 99.8% respectively; and the particle mass reduced by 73% to 92.2% and 35.3% to 72.4%, respectively, depending on the engine conditions. In addition, nuclei mode particles increased with the increasing of engine speed due to the heterogeneous nucleation initiated by the higher exhaust temperature, while accumulation mode particles were higher at higher loads due to the decrease in the air-to-fuel ratio （A/F） at higher loads.

Impacts of continuously regenerating trap and particle oxidation catalyst on the NO_2 and particulate matter emissions emitted from diesel engine

Two continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter （CRDPF） with different configurations and one particles oxidation catalyst （POC） were employed to perform experiments in a controlled laboratory setting to evaluate their effects on NO2, smoke and particle number emissions. The results showed that the application of the after-treatments increased the emission ratios of NO2/NOx significantly. The results of smoke emissions and particle number （PN） emissions indicated that both CRDPFs had sufficient capacity to remove more than 90% of total particulate matter （PM） and more than 97% of solid particles. However, the POC was able to remove the organic components of total PM, and only partially to remove the carbonaceous particles with size less than 30 nm. The negligible effects of POC on larger particles were observed due to its honeycomb structure leads to an inadequate residence time to oxidize the solid particles or trap them. The particles removal efficiencies of CRDPFs had high degree of correlations with the emission ratio of NO2/NOx. The PN emission results from two CRDPFs indicated that more NO2 generating in diesel oxidation catalyst section could obtain the higher removal efficiency of solid particles. However this also increased the risk of NO2 exposure in atmosphere.

Characterization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emissions from diesel engine retrofitted with selective catalytic reduction and continuously regenerating trap

Two after treatment units, selective catalytic reduction （SCR） and continuously regenerating trap （CRT）, were independently retrofitted to a diesel engine, with the objective to investigate their impact on the conversion/reduction （CR） of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons （PAHs）. The experiments were conducted under the European steady state cycle （ESC） first without any retrofits to get baseline emissions, and then with SCR and CRT respectively, on the same engine. The particulate matter （PM）-phase PAHs were trapped in fiberglass filters, whereas gas-phase PAHs were collected in cartridges, and then analyzed using a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer （GC-MS）. Both PM-phase and gas-phase PAHs were greatly reduced with CRT showing respective CR of 90.7% and above 80%, whereas only gas-phase PAHs were abated in the case of SCR, with CR of above 75%. Lower molecular weight （LMW） PAHs were in abundance, while naphthalene exhibited a maximum relative contribution （RC） to LMW-PAHs for all three cases. Further, the CR of naphthalene and anthracene were increased with increasing catalyst temperature of SCR, most likely due to their conversion to solid particles. Moreover, the Benzo[a]Pyrene equivalent （BaPeq） of PAHs was greatly reduced with CRT, owing to substantial reduction of total PAHs.

A novel strategy for producing high-performance continuous regenerated fibers with wool-like structure

We proposed a novel approach to prepare high-performance continuous regenerated keratin fibers with wool-like structure by using the cortical cells and linear keratin from wool waste as reinforcement and adhesive,respectively.The spindle-shaped cortical cells were taken from wool waste based on the different responses of cortical cells and mesenchyme in wool to the treatments of H_(2)O_(2) oxidation and ultrasonication.The linear keratin was yielded through dissolving wool waste in the green solution consisting of starch derived dithiothreitol and protein denaturant sodium dodecyl sulfate.The recycled keratin fibers were produced by wet-spinning of the mixture solution comprising of cortical cells,linear keratin and toughener poly(ethylene glycol)diacrylate,and crosslinked by glutaraldehyde and 4,4′-methylenebis-(phenyl isocyanate).The cortical cells were aligned along the regenerated fibers axis and retained quite a fewα-helical crystals of the intermediate filaments,benefitting improvement of mechanical properties.Consequently,the valuable chemical compositions and hierarchical microstructures of wool were largely inherited.Their mechanical properties,thermal stability,dyeing property,moisture absorption capability,and antistatic resistance resembled those of wool.The regenerated fibers contained 93.3 wt.%components of wool,and the amount of synthetic chemicals in the regenerated fibers was controlled to as low as 6.7 wt.%.