OXIDATION CHARACTERISTICS OF PARTICULATE MATTER ON DIESEL WARM-UP CATALYTIC CONVERTER

Modern passenger cars with diesel engines are equipped with DOC (diesel oxidation catalyst) for the purpose of reducing HC and CO in the exhaust stream. Cold start exhaust emissions pose troubles here as on gasoline engine vehicles. As a result, some of the diesel passenger cars roll off todays the assembly lines with WCC (warm-up catalytic converter). Oxidation characteristics of the particulates in WCC is analyzed in this study by EEPS (engine exhaust particulate size spectrometer). The maximum number of PM is found to come out of WCC in sizes near 10㎚ when an HSDI diesel engine is operated under the conditions of high speed and medium to heavy load. When the temperature of the WCC exceeds 300oC, the number of PM smaller than 30 ㎚ in diameter sharply increases upon passing through the WCC. Total mass of emitted PM gets reduced downstream of the WCC under low speed and light load conditions due to adsorption of PM onto the catalyst. Under conditions of high speed and medium to heavy load, the relatively large PM shrink or break into fine particles during oxidation process within the WCC, which results in more mass fraction of fine particles downstream of the WCC.