Experimental study on the removal of real exhaust pollutants from a diesel engine by activated carbon

Abstract

So far, most of the experimental researchers studying the removal of diesel exhaust pollutants have done so with simulated exhaust gas, which cannot demonstrate the ability of catalysts accurately. Because activated carbon (AC) has low price, no secondary pollution, good adsorption performance, and certain catalytic activity, it has good application prospects in the field of marine exhaust pollutant removal. In this paper, the removal of particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), and NOx from real exhaust gas by AC was studied. The results show that PM removal efficiency reached up to 77%, while the pressure drop increased with running time. AC may degenerate to some extent with the increase of temperature, resulting in a negative removal efficiency of CO. The denitration efficiency of AC was up to 34.5% without urea, and further increased to 44.8% after spraying urea, still a distance from industrial applications. In the future, it may be necessary to install a fan to compensate the reactor or to backwash the reactor to avoid excessive pressure drop. The thermal stability of the AC also needs to be improved. To increase the denitration performance, it may be helpful to modify the AC or impregnate other metal oxides.