A Laboratory Investigation of Pulsed Discharged Based Techniques for Engine Exhaust Treatment - Effect of Exhaust Nature and Operating Conditions
A. D. Srinivasan, R. Rajagopala, N. Jagadisha, and A. Bhargavi
Department of Electrical and Electronics, Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, India
Abstract— A detailed investigation on the removal of pollutants (NOx, aldehydes and CO) from the exhaust of a stationary diesel engine is carried out using pulse discharge plasma associated with adsorbent-catalyst techniques (PAC). The objective of the study is to explore the effect of the exhaust nature, i.e. filtered or raw, and operating conditions on the pollutant (NOx, CO and aldehydes) removal process. In this study the exhaust treatment was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, the exhaust was treated with single step PAC and in the second stage with double step PAC. To study the effect of exhaust nature, in each stage the experiments were carried out with filtered and unfiltered (raw) exhaust. Further, to study the effect of operating conditions, in each stage, the experiments were carried out at different temperatures (up to 400ﾂｰC), different engine loading and flow rate. The effectiveness of the technique with regard to NOx, CO removal and by-product reduction was discussed. Finally, a comprehensive comparison of the single step PAC and double step PAC techniques has been made and results were discussed.
Keywords— Pulse discharge plasma, diesel engine exhaust, single step PAC, double step PAC, pollutant removal, by-products formation, plasma based techniques