Diesel particulates—What they are and why

Abstract

The diesel passenger car offers a substantial advantage in fuel economy over its gasoline-powered counterpart, but the long-range future of the diesel in this application is threatened by future federal standards on exhaust particular emissions. These particulates are primarily combustion-generated carbonaceous soot in combination with a solvent-extractable hydrocarbon fraction. Particulate production involves an incompletely understood series of phenomena that includes nucleation, surface growth, agglomeration, dehydrogenation, oxidation, and adsorption and condensation of gaseous hydrocarbons. The contemporary state of understanding of these events is reviewed as they apply to the passenger-car diesel engine. © 1982 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc.