With federal requirements calling for a 90 percent reduction in particulates from diesel engines by 2007, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are working with Industrial Ceramic Solutions of Oak Ridge, Tenn., in testing a cylindrical silicon carbide fiber filter to capture the diesel soot before it is emitted into the atmosphere. Utilizing an electron microscope at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Temperature Materials Laboratory and facilities at the National Transportation Research Center in nearby Knoxville, Industrial Ceramic Solutions President Dick Nixdorf is working with Oak Ridge researcher Larry Walker in evaluating the filter media, which requires less backpressure on the diesel engine than existing technologies, thus reducing its stress. The fiber filter contains a lower thermal mass that requires less heat to regenerate and is more energy efficient. The fiber filter is one-third the weight of conventional wall-flow filters that require more regeneration energy, a higher backpressure, is less expensive to produce and easier to clean while also improving fuel mileage. The funding source is DOE's Office of FreedomCAR and Vehicle Technologies.
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