ARTICLE IN PRESS

Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv

Effects of a catalysed and an additized particle lter

on the emissions of a diesel passenger car operating
on low sulphur fuels
Leonidas Ntziachristosa, Zissis Samarasa,, Efthimios Zervasb, Pascal Dorlhe`neb
a

Laboratory of Applied Thermodynamics, Mechanical Engineering Department, Aristotle University Thessaloniki,

P.O. Box 458, GR-54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
b
Renault, 1, Allee Cornuel, F-91510 Lardy, France
Received 12 January 2005; received in revised form 5 April 2005; accepted 30 April 2005

Abstract
This paper presents the emission characteristics of a diesel passenger car operated on low sulphur fuels (8 and
38 ppm) when tted with either a catalysed diesel particle lter (DPF) or a non-catalysed one combined with a fuelborne catalyst. Measurements were conducted over the New European Driving Cycle and a higher speed driving cycle
to monitor the off-cycle DPF emission behaviour. Regulated gaseous pollutants and particle mass, number and surface
were recorded. Aerosol samples were collected with a dedicated sampling system, which provided identical dilution
conditions, regardless of the vehicle conguration, and allowed a distinction between volatile and non-volatile particles.
The results showed that DPFs have the potential of ltration efciencies which may exceed 99.5% in all airborne
particle properties measured, over the transient cycles. As a result, the cycle average particle number was reduced from
1014 to about 1011 particles km
1 when tting any DPF and the particle mass was reduced from 40 mg km
1 to the
detection limit of the current measurement procedure. The exact particle concentration depended on the lter material
properties. However, the efciency in reducing mass appears lower than the airborne number, which suggests a
sampling artefact of the present particulate matter measurement procedure. A nucleation mode formed at high exhaust
gas temperature with the use of the higher sulphur fuel in combination with the catalysed DPF, thus decreasing the
apparent DPF ltration efciency. This was removed when any of the contributing factors (high temperature, higher
sulphur fuel, catalysed DPF) were not present, suggesting sulphate particle formation downstream of the lter. Finally,
results show that the DPF soot loading has an insignicant effect on particle size distribution downstream of the lter,
when operating within soot-loading limits that are typically encountered in normal on-road operation.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Exhaust aerosol; Nucleation mode; Diesel aftertreatment; Filtration efciency

1. Introduction

Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 23 10 99 60 14;

fax: +30 23 10 99 60 19.

E-mail address: zisis@auth.gr (Z. Samaras).

Diesel passenger car registrations represented 44.3%

of the total European passenger car market in 2003 and
reached as much as 70% of total registrations in some
countries, according to the European Automotive

1352-2310/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2005.04.040

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

Manufacturers Association (ACEA, 2004). The main

driving force for this trend is the higher fuel economy
compared to gasoline and the improved drivability at
low engine speeds. Additionally, ACEA is committed to
reducing the mean CO2 from new vehicles at 140 g km
1
by 2008 (25% reduction over 1990 levels) in an effort to
meet the European targets for the Kyoto Protocol. This
reduction will basically be accomplished via increasing
the market share of diesel cars.
In order to reduce the environmental impact from
vehicles, European legislation introduced the Euro 4
step in January 2005, which, for diesel cars, corresponds
to 0.25 g km
1 of NOx and 0.025 g km
1 of particulate
matter (PM). Despite an 80% reduction in diesel car
emission standards over levels 10 years ago, the mean
NOx emission level of diesel vehicles continues to be
three times higher than their gasoline counterparts.
Gasoline vehicles are also known to emit low levels of
soot particles (Andersson et al., 2002; Mohr et al., 2000).
Hence, future emission standards are already under
consideration to further tighten emission limits for diesel
vehicles.
Diesel particle lters (DPFs) are one of the most
technically feasible solutions to reduce PM. DPFs are
tted in the exhaust line and collect PM by deep-bed
ltration. PM accumulated in the lter is then periodically combusted by oxidizing agents in the exhaust gas in
a process called regeneration. Commercial applications
either use some kind of a catalyst to decrease the soot
ignition temperature and increase the range of exhaust
gas temperatures where regeneration can occur or apply
an oxidation catalyst to increase NO2 concentration,
which is an efcient soot oxidation agent.
DPFs have been widely tted to new vehicles and
retrotted mainly to buses and large construction
equipment (e.g. Sequelong et al., 2004; Ball et al.,
2004; Mayer et al., 1999). Extensive experience has
already been accumulated with the operation and
emission performance of these systems on large diesel
applications (Lanni, 2003). Passenger car manufacturers
started to offer compact DPF systems on a voluntary
basis (Joubert and Sequelong, 2004) and some rst
conclusions of their operation and ltration characteristics have been collected (Jeuland et al., 2004).
However, there are still open issues with regard to the
performance of the systems over fully transient and realworld driving conditions of light duty vehicles, because
very little data under such conditions are currently
available (Durbin et al., 2003; Mathis et al., 2005).
In the present paper we try to address these issues by
studying the emission performance of a current technology diesel car tted with two different DPF systems.
Measurements are conducted over the European coldstart certication cycle (New European Driving Cycle
NEDC) and an additional higher speed cycle to account
for distinctly different driving conditions. The focus is

on PM and airborne particle emissions which are

measured using a specially developed sampling protocol
and methodology to separate vehicle effects from
sampling effects. Additionally, two fuels with identical
properties but different sulphur content are tested to
explore the additional benet of eliminating fuel
sulphur.

2. Experimental
2.1. Vehicle and fuels
A 2001 model year Renault Laguna 1.9 dCi was used
in this study, equipped with a common-rail direct
injection diesel engine and meeting Euro 3 emission
standards. PM emissions in this vehicle are controlled by
high pressure fuel injection (1350 bar max common rail
pressure) and two diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) in
series (pre-cat and main cat), which mainly decrease the
volatile content of exhaust PM. This combustion system
and aftertreatment conguration corresponds to one of
the most widespread diesel exhaust control congurations for passenger cars in Europe today (the other one
being unit injectors with DOC). The vehicle was of low
mileage (28,000 km) and it was regularly maintained
according to manufacturer specications. The lubrication oil used was a 15W-40 grade (ACEA A3/B3) with
6000 ppm wt sulphur content. The vehicle was driven for
about 1000 km before the measurements. Baseline
emission tests were performed with the vehicle in its
original conguration (no particle lter). It should be
stressed that the engine calibration was not changed
when a DPF was installed in the exhaust line.
Two fuels were used to address the effect of fuel
sulphur on particle emissions. These fullled the current
EN590 specications (monaromatics 14%, polyaromatics 4.3%) for automotive diesel fuel and their exact
chemical character and physical properties are found
elsewhere (Ntziachristos et al., 2004b). The only
difference in fuel composition was their sulphur content.
The higher sulphur fuel (HSF38 ppm wt) was derived
from the lower sulphur one (LSF8 ppm wt) by doping
with sulphur compounds (thiophene and di-tertiarybutyl-disulphide). These fuels were fed to the engine by an
external canister to avoid sulphur contamination of the
fuel transfer lines.
2.2. Measurement protocol
Each measurement day consisted of a series of
test cycles each using the same sampling protocol.
Measurements started with the certication NEDC
and a hot-start repetition of the urban part (UDC)
followed. Then, three cycles developed in the EU
Artemis project (Andre`, 2004) were conducted to

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

simulate operation over urban, rural and highway

conditions. The introduction of these additional cycles
in the protocol is important to characterize the emission
performance of the vehicle and the aftertreatment
systems in off-cycle conditions. Then, three steady speed
tests at 50, 90 and 120 km h
1 were performed to obtain
SMPS particle size distributions. The net sampling time
per day was about 2 h, with the vehicle covering a
distance of about 115 km. Each measurement day was
repeated twice. The vehicle was conditioned for about
100 km before testing whenever a fuel change was
required.
2.3. Diesel particle filters
The two DPF systems examined were based on
different principles to enhance soot oxidation. The rst
system utilizes a Ce-based additive (CeDPF) to reduce
soot ignition temperature and to allow regeneration at a
wider exhaust gas temperature range. The concentration
of Ce in the fuel was adjusted at 25 ppm for these
measurements. The lter material was SiC and the
monolith external dimensions were +144 mm  L
152.4 mm (5.6600  600 with a cell density of 200 cells
per square inch (cpsi) and a wall thickness of 0.38 mm.
The second system was a catalysed soot lter (CSF) of
the same material and external dimensions with the rst
one. The presence of Pt-catalyst in the second lter
assists soot oxidation, therefore no external additive was
required in this conguration. This second lter had a
cell density of 300 cpsi and a wall thickness of 0.30 mm.
Material porosity and mean pore size were also larger
than the CeDPF (before the washcoat application).

4927

The DPFs were installed in place of the main

underoor catalyst, which was removed for non-baseline
measurements. CSF measurements preceded the CeDPF
ones chronologically to reduce engine memory effects
by Ce contamination. In order to estimate the lter
soot loading, two pressure transducers were placed
upstream and downstream of the DPFs to record the
exhaust gas pressure drop and a thermocouple was
placed upstream to measure the exhaust gas temperature. The exhaust gas owrate was calculated as the sum
of fuel consumption measured externally and the engine
intake air recorded by the vehicles hot wire anemometer.
The lter soot-loading level is one parameter that
needs to be considered in the measurement protocol. The
soot loading was calculated according to an algorithm
which takes into account the measured signals and the
lter geometry and calculates the soot layer characteristics (Haralampous et al., 2004). A low to moderate
soot-loading level is representative of the actual on-road
lter operation and necessary to maintain a low exhaust
gas backpressure and fuel penalty. In the tests of this
study, the CSF conguration was found to oxidize the
soot accumulated and to keep or even reduce its mean
soot-loading level, with no vehicle or engine modication. However, the CeDPF was not able to selfregenerate, despite the additive presence, and a forced
regeneration at high engine load and speed had to be
performed for lter cleaning. Fig. 1 shows the evolution
of the calculated mean lter soot loading as a function of
the vehicle accumulated distance during the measurement campaign. A different regeneration behaviour
would have been obtained by changing the engine

14
CSF+LSF

CSF+HSF

Trap soot loading (g)

12
10
8
6
120

Forced

120

4
120

120
CeDPF+LSF

0
0

100

200

300

400 0

100
200
300
Accumulated mileage [km]

400 0

100

200

300

Fig. 1. Calculated mean trap soot loading as a function of accumulated distance. Diamonds correspond to transient cycles and
triangles to steady state operation. 120 indicates the 120 km h
1 test where self-regeneration takes place for the CSF. Forced
corresponds to a forced regeneration of the CeDPF at high engine speed and load to increase exhaust gas temperature. Lines are guide
to the eye only.

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

calibration, but this was not done here in order to keep

engine-out emissions at the same levels with the baseline.
2.4. Sampling
The conditions and procedures for airborne particle
sampling are critical for the interpretation of the results.
The particle sampling setup utilized in this study was
presented in detail elsewhere (Ntziachristos et al., 2004b)
and has been widely applied to characterize emissions
from passenger cars (Ntziachristos et al., 2004a) and
heavy duty engines (Thompson et al., 2004). Its main
task is to precisely condition aerosol samples drawn
from raw exhaust before measurement with several
instruments, to enable the comparison of particle
emissions from different sources (engines/vehicles) under
the same sampling conditions.
A schematic of the sampling system is shown in Fig. 2.
The porous dilutor draws aerosol samples at a semiconstant dilution ratio DR 12:5  2:5 : 1 and dilution air temperature DAT 32 1C and these are
allowed to stabilize in an aging chamber for 2.5 s (a
constant residence time). These conditions are considered to maximize the potential for nucleation mode
(NM) particle formation by increasing the saturation
ratio of semi-volatile components (Mathis et al., 2004).
The diluted sample is then split into three parts: One

part passes through a thermodenuder (TD) operating at

250 1C to separate non-volatile (solid) particles before
they are sampled with an electrical low pressure
impactor (ELPI). This temperature is effective in
removing NM particles, without any large effect on
accumulation mode particles (Matter et al., 1999).
Another (larger) part of the diluted sample is collected
in a gravimetric impactor (DGI) which provides the
mass-weighted size distribution. Finally, a third smaller
part of the sample is further diluted with cascaded
ejector dilutors to decrease the particle concentration
within the range of the TSI CPC 3010 and TSI SMPS
3936 used. Table 1 provides the sampling conditions for
each instrument in some detail. All results presented in
this study were corrected for particle losses in the
sampling system and instrument/device related inefciencies. No DGI results are presented here though
because of the low particle mass collected on each
impactor stage when the DPFs were tested (below
0.1 mg on a 180 mg lter).
Gaseous pollutants and PM mass were measured
according to the standard constant volume sampling
(CVS) method with a dilution tunnel, following the
specications of current European regulations valid for
Euro 3 compliant vehicles. Pallex TX40 (Teoncoated) lters were used for PM collection. A separate
lter was used for each of the two NEDC parts (urban

Fig. 2. Particle sampling system schematic. Raw exhaust is sampled directly from the tailpipe and is precisely conditioned in a porous
dilutor. Aerosol samples are then measured with different instruments, including the electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI)
downstream of the thermodenuder (TD), a condensation particle counter, a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS), a diffusion
charger (DC) and a gravimetric impactor (DGI).

ARTICLE IN PRESS
L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

4929

Table 1
Particle property measured by each instrument and aerosol sample condition upstream of the instrument inlet
Instrument

Sampling property

Total dilution ratio

Temperature (1C)

Residence time (s)

DGI

Mass-weighted size
distribution
Solid particle total number
(7 nm1 mm) and size
distribution
Total active surface of
airborne particles (7 nm1 mm)
Number-weighted size
distribution (7.6290 nm)

12.572.5

Tamb to Tamb+5 1C

2.5

12.572.5

Tamb+10 1C

3.5

16575

Tamb

3.0

16575 (w. trap)

Tamb

3.0 (w. trap)

19.370.5  103 (baseline)

Similar to SMPS

Tamb

3.5 (baseline)
Similar to SMPS

DC
SMPS 3936L

CPC 3010

Total particle number

45 nm

and extra-urban) and the Artemis cycle. Only a primary

lter (no backup) was used to avoid sampling artefacts
when testing DPFs (Chase et al., 2004). All tests were
conducted at the facilities of the Laboratory of Applied
Thermodynamics, Mechanical Engineering Department,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

3. Results
3.1. Gaseous pollutants

NEDC
0.7
(Euro 3)

0.6
Emission rate (g km-1)

ELPI+TD

0.5

Euro 3

Euro 3
Baseline
CSF

0.4

CeDPF

0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
38 ppm

8 ppm

NOx

38 ppm

8 ppm

HC10

38 ppm

8 ppm

CO
Artemis

0.7
0.6
Emission rate (g km-1)

Fig. 3 shows the effect of the different DPF

congurations on the regulated gaseous pollutants from
this vehicle, for the two driving cycles considered. Fig.
3a also includes the vehicle emission standard level
(Euro 3) for each pollutant. CO is at least three times
below the emission standard (0.64 g km
1) and shows no
particular dependence on aftertreatment, despite the fact
that the main oxidation catalyst was removed and
replaced with the DPFs. In particular, over the hot-start
ARTEMIS cycle, CO is at the detection limit and the
only obvious deviation is when a non-catalysed DPF is
used. This increase in CO might either come from
limited soot combustion in the DPF or from the increase
of the tailpipe levels when the catalyst is removed.
No emission standard exists for HC, but only an
emission margin, derived as the difference between
the NOx HC (0.56 g km
1) and NOx (0.50 g km
1)
emission standards. In general, emission levels are 50%
below the margin for the cold-start NEDC and are
further reduced over the hot-start cycle. There is an
increase when DPFs are used, which may be more than
double the baseline condition. Variability also increases
though, but this is not unexpected since earlier studies
have shown that the HC measurement procedure for
diesel vehicles is associated with higher variability than

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
38 ppm

8 ppm

NOx

38 ppm

8 ppm

HC10

38 ppm

8 ppm

CO

Fig. 3. Gaseous pollutant emission rate with different fuels (8

and 38 ppm S) and vehicle congurations. Error bars correspond to the minmax of two measurements conducted at
different days. Euro 3 level corresponds to the emission
standard values.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

the measurement procedures for other pollutants

(Zervas et al., 2005; Mamakos et al., 2004). Increases
in total hydrocarbons most probably originate from the
removal of the oxidation catalyst, a fact specic to this
study only and could be remedied in the actual
application of such a system by properly dimensioning
the DOC. Similar to the CO, HC are not a priority
pollutant from diesel vehicles; therefore their emission
increase within such small ranges is not of particular
importance.
NOx is one of the key diesel pollutants. There are two
main and one secondary mechanism by which a DPF
may affect diesel engine-out NOx emissions. The
primary mechanism is by increasing the exhaust backpressure which in turn increases the engine load for the
same driving conditions. This may lead to an increase of
NOx emissions. At the same time, internal exhaust gas
recirculation (EGR) increases which has the opposite
effect on NOx emissions. Finally, NO2 may be consumed
in oxidizing PM in the lter but this is only a small
fraction of the total emissions. In general, engine
manufacturers are able to tune the engine-out NOx
emissions by adjusting the combustion parameters (fuel
timing, EGR, etc.), depending on the aftertreatment
system used. No adjustments were made to the engine of
the test vehicle in conjunction with retrotting with the
DPFs here. NOx emissions over the lower power NEDC
were at 70% of the emission standard and showed no
appreciable effect with the DPFs. Up to a 25% increase
was observed over the power demanding Artemis cycle
for our vehicle with the DPFs. Since the engine was not
recalibrated for DPF use, we may suggest that none of
the DPFs tested have a signicantly negative effect on
NOx emissions, at least to the extent that it would be
impossible to correct by engine recalibration. In addition, use of a DPF reduces the design stringency on
engine-out PM levels, thus a NOx favourable calibration
could be used for the commercial application of such a
system.
3.2. PM and airborne particle properties
The effect of DPFs on particle properties (total and
solid particle number and total active surface) and PM is
shown in Fig. 4. Based on these data, Table 2
summarizes the DPF efciency in reducing PM and
the airborne particle properties measured. Starting with
PM mass, DPFs appear to be at least 95% effective in
removing particle mass from the exhaust. In particular,
over the NEDC, PM emission levels are reduced from
40 to 1 mg km
1. However, since these very low PM
emission levels are generally associated with poor
measurement repeatability, the mass values quoted here
should be considered approximate (Zervas et al., 2005).
Reductions are even more impressive when looking
at airborne particle properties, with emission levels

decreasing with the DPF systems by three orders of

magnitude. Solid particle number decreases from slightly
above 1014 particle km
1 to below 1011 particle km
1. Total
particle number reduction is also in the same range, but
emissions downstream of the DPF are 20% (NEDC) to
twice higher (Artemis) than the 1011 particle km
1 level.
However, it needs to be considered in the comparisons
that, when a DPF is used, the repeatability of total particle
number measurement is in the range of 2080% (expressed
as 1.96 times the relative standard deviationsee Zervas et
al., 2005). Active surface is found at 70 cm2 km
1
downstream of the DPF compared to 1213 m2 km
1 at
baseline conguration.
Focusing on fuel sulphur effects on baseline emissions, the rst observation is that its effect is negligible
over the NEDC for all particle properties. Use of 8 ppm
instead of 38 ppm sulphur fuel results in +11% PM and
solid particle number,
10% total particle number and
no difference in the active surface area. These differences
may well be considered within the experimental uncertainty of the measurement. However, there is a
measurable effect over the Artemis cycle with total
particle number decreasing by 60% and total surface
area by 23% when reducing the fuel sulphur content.
The increase of total particle number at high speeds
when a non-zero sulphur fuel and a DOC are used has
been frequently observed in the past (Maricq et al., 2002;
Vogt et al., 2003). This has been attributed to sulphate
formation downstream of the DPFs as the exhaust gas
temperature increases and was actually conrmed here
with an additional vehicle of the same type.
The effect of sulphur on post-DPF emissions is similar
to the baseline measurements, with effects only found
over the high-speed Artemis cycle. When the CSF is in
place, the CPC/ELPI (total over solid particle number)
ratio is in the range of 1.321.40 for all fuel and cycle
congurations, except over the Artemis cycle using the
higher sulphur fuel, when it actually doubles to 2.64. At
the same time, active surface recorded with the DC is
three times higher over the Artemis than over the
NEDC, when using the HSF fuel. All these occur with
no appreciable difference in the solid particle number
(ELPI) NEDC/Artemis ratio which remains at 0.60.7
for the CSF, regardless of the fuel sulphur level. These
results show that the fuel sulphur content may have an
effect on semi-volatile particle nucleation when using a
DPF, even in the sub-50 ppm range. However, the effect
is negligible in the type-approval cycle and limited to the
high-speed cycle, despite the fact that favourable
conditions for particle nucleation were applied.
3.3. Detailed trap operation/efficiency
Fig. 4 may further be used to compare the efciency of
the two systems. There is a repeatable and measurable
difference in concentration downstream of the two DPF

ARTICLE IN PRESS
L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936
70

70
NEDC

NEDC

Artemis

38
ppm

8
ppm

30
20

DC - Active Surface (m2 km-1)

PM (mg km-1)

8
ppm

38
ppm

40

8
ppm

38
ppm

8
ppm

30
20

0
CSF10

38
ppm

40

10

Baseline

Baseline

CeDPF10

CSF 103

CeDPF 103

50

50
NEDC

NEDC

Artemis
8
ppm

38
ppm

8
ppm

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Baseline

CPC - Total particle number (km-1)

38
ppm

Artemis

45

45
ELPI - Solid particle number (km-1)

50

10

40

Artemis

60

60
50

4931

40

38
ppm

8
ppm

38
ppm

8
ppm

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

1013

CSF

1010

CeDPF

1010

Baseline 1013

CSF 1010

CeDPF 1010

Fig. 4. Particle mass (PM) and different airborne particle properties for the fuel and vehicle congurations studied. Error bars
correspond to minmax of two measurements conducted at different days. Multipliers (shown in the legend) were applied to DPF
emissions in order to be visible in the linear y-axis.

systems, in particular with regard to solid particles. The

CeDPF conguration resulted in 4080% lower levels
than the CSF, which is beyond the repeatability
uncertainty, especially over the Artemis cycle. Although
the difference is again not important at an absolute scale
compared to the baseline emission levels, it still shows
that ltration efciency is not the same for all DPFs.
Furthermore, the high efciency of CeDPF in solid
particles indicates that there is no detectable escape of
solid nanoparticles due to the fuel-borne catalyst.
The real-time recordings of particle number concentration may be used to better explore efciency as a
function of the upstream exhaust gas condition. Fig. 5
shows the particle number emission rate over the

Artemis cycle, as recorded with the CPC (total number)

and the ELPI (solids number) on a logarithmic scale.
CSF has a thinner wall, higher porosity and larger mean
pore size than the CeDPF, which may all lead to
somewhat reduced efciency. This is particularly visible
in solid number and shows that the material characteristics have a measurable effect on emission levels
downstream of the lter.
A parameter that may inuence the emission level
downstream of a DPF is its soot loading, i.e. the
thickness of the soot layer formed within the trap.
This may be studied in more detail over steady state
tests. Fig. 6 shows particle size distributions downstream of the CSF for which measurements at different

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

Table 2
Filtration efciency (expressed in %) of DPFs, based on different particle properties
Measurement

PM
Active surface (DC)
Solids number (ELPI)
Total number (CPC)
Total number (SMPS)

Driving cycle

NEDC
Artemis
NEDC
Artemis
NEDC
Artemis
NEDC
Artemis
50 km h
1
90 km h
1
120 km h
1

soot-loading levels were taken. Particle concentration

follows typical lognormal distributions at 50 km h
1,
which are noisy due to the very low levels. There is little
to differentiate between soot loading and fuel, despite
that soot levels range between 2 and 12 g in the DPF,
which is the extent of the range reached for typical onroad application. Nevertheless, a more careful look
reveals that concentration increases with both soot
loading and fuel sulphur. This is only marginal,
however, compared to baseline emission levels. Results
are more interesting at 120 km h
1. At this condition
(Texh380 1C), this catalysed lter has started to
regenerate as shown by the decreasing soot-loading
levels. This is a rather controlled regeneration, in the
sense that soot is not consumed quickly as in a ame,
but it slowly oxidizes, also assisted by the catalyst. The
effect of this process on emissions is not visible when
LSF is used and the distributions remain lognormal at
more or less the same level and mean size with
50 km h
1. A somewhat higher emission rate may be
solely due to the higher exhaust owrate at this speed.
A large NM is only observed when HSF fuel is used.
This is probably not due to the regeneration, but it is
rather related to the sulphur content of the fuel, as this
has been recorded also without the DPF in place. The
inset in the lower left panel shows that the magnitude of
this NM reaches or exceeds conventional diesel levels,
leading to an apparent DPF efciency as low as 36%
(see also Table 2). The present results show that even
with a fuel of very low sulphur content (38 ppm wt) NM
may be still formed downstream of a catalysed DPF
at high exhaust gas temperature. This should not be
considered as an outcome of low ltration efciency, but
new particle formation downstream of the DPF.
However, with the use of a near-zero sulphur fuel
(LSF8 ppm wt) or a non-catalysed DPF (CeDPF), we
did not observe NM formation (Table 2last row).

CSF

CeDPF

38 ppm S

8 ppm S

8 ppm S

96.94
97.44
99.96
99.71
99.94
99.93
99.92
99.95
99.94
99.94
35.67

98.12
95.30
99.93
99.88
99.93
99.91
99.89
99.88
99.95
99.96
99.96

98.39
98.59
99.95
99.95
99.96
99.98
99.87
99.94
99.87
99.92
99.94

4. Discussion and conclusions

Use of two different DPFs on a diesel passenger car
revealed that they have the potential of very high
ltration efciencies which may exceed 99.5% in all
airborne particle properties measured, using diesel fuels
with a sulphur content which is available in Europe as of
2005 (below 50 ppm). From this perspective, both a fuelborne and a catalysed lter appear to be viable
alternatives for passenger car applications. Despite
sampling conditions which favour the formation of
NM particles, i.e. low dilution ratio (12.5:1) and
moderate dilution air temperature (32 1C), there was
no extensive NM formation during transient tests with
DPFs. The result of this high efciency was that a
conventional passenger car emitting 1014 solid
particles km
1 reached 1011 solid particles km
1 with
the use of two different technology lters. It is worth
stressing that total particle emissions from the vehicle
and fuels tested were found at similar levels with solid
particles, at least over the type approval cycle, for both
baseline and DPF congurations.
With regard to PM mass, use of the DPF systems
reduced exhaust emissions from 40 to 1 mg km
1.
Although this is a large reduction on an absolute scale, it
corresponds to an efciency in the range of 9598.5%
(Table 2), which is lower than for airborne particles.
This could be attributed to the collection of semi-volatile
material on the lter, which is normally not airsuspended in the diluted exhaust. Chase et al. (2004)
similarly observed that the organic portion of the PM
sample depended on the sampling lter material and
that there was signicant mass gain depending on the
number of cascaded lters used. Therefore, they
concluded that some of the organic material on the
lter is just an artefact of the sampling procedure.
Our measurements conrm that this material is not

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

4933

1.0E+14
Baseline

1.0E+12
1.0E+11

CSF

1.0E+10
1.0E+09

400

1.0E+08

300
CeDPF

1.0E+07

200
Temperature
100
Baseline

ELPI
1.0E+13

Temperature (C)

Total particle emission rate [s-1]

CPC
1.0E+13

1.0E+11

CSF

1.0E+10
1.0E+09
1.0E+08

CeDPF

1.0E+07

120
80

1.0E+06

40

Speed

1.0E+05
0

200

400

600

800

Speed (km h-1)

Solid particle emission rate [s-1]

1.0E+12

1000

Artemis cycle time [s]

Fig. 5. Real-time recording of particle number emission rate, exhaust gas temperature and vehicle speed over the Artemis cycle with
different vehicle congurations using LSF (8 ppm S). The top panel corresponds to total particle number (CPC) and the bottom one to
solid particle number (ELPI).

measured by the airborne particle instrumentation,

hence absorption or adsorption of gaseous semi-volatile
species on the sampling lter is a plausible mechanism.
This would imply two things: rstly, that even in
airborne particle mass terms the actual DPF efciency
is even higher and, secondly, that the regulated
procedure for PM measurement downstream of DPF
lters may become problematic due to interference
from semi-volatile condensation following the current
procedure (see also Liu et al., 2003). This indicates that
the current procedure must be improved for future
regulations.
A typical particle size distribution downstream of the
DPFs examined is lognormal at low speeds and may

shift to bi-modal with the formation of a discrete NM at

higher speeds. The NM reaches baseline emission
concentration levels and reduces the apparent ltration
efciency of total particles down to 36%. However, NM
develops only when favourable conditions for sulphate
formation are established. These include exhaust gas
temperature in the order of 400 1C, use of the higher
sulphur fuel (38 ppm) and a catalysed lter. No NM was
measured when any of these conditions were not met.
The same dependence of NM on DPF and exhaust gas
condition has been also shown by Vaaraslahti et al.
(2004) for a heavy duty application with near-zero
sulphur fuels. Jeuland et al. (2004) also observed
formation of an NM downstream of a DPF system at

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

4934

2.5

14

50 km/h

50 km/h

HS F - H

Trap soot loading (g)

1011 dN/dlogDp (km-1)

Total particle emission rate

12
2.0

1.5
LS F- H
1.0

HS F - L

10

LSF - H
SMPS
scans

8
HSF - H
6
LS F - L

0.5
2
HS F - L

LS F - L
0

0.0
0.01

0.1

20

120

220

Mobility diameter (m)

2.5

520

620

720

12

13

LS F - H

10
HSF - H

1012

Trap soot loading (g)

dN/dlogDp (km )

-1

420

14
15
HSF - L 10
1014

2.0

1011

Total particle emission rate

320

Sampling Time (s)

1011

1.5
LSF - H

1010

1.0

10
8
LS F - L

SMPS
sc ans

6
4

HS F - H

0.5
2
120 km/h

LSF - L
0.0
0.01

0.1
Mobility diameter (m)

HS F - L

120 km/h

0
20

120

220

320

420

520

620

720

Sampling Time (s)

Fig. 6. Particle size distributions (left) obtained at different CSF soot-loading levels (right). Upper and lower panels correspond to
50 km h
1 and 120 km h
1, respectively. H, L correspond to higher and lower loadings, respectively. Each distribution is an
average of two scans. The SMPS scans line on the right corresponds to the start time of the SMPS scans. The inset in the bottom left
panel shows the whole distributions on a logarithmic axis.

high speed. Our measurements showed that solid

particle number remained at the ELPI detection limit
over all steady state speed tests, which conrms that NM
particles downstream of the DPF are due to droplet
formation. In any case, these ndings show that in order
to achieve ultra-high DPF efciency under all operating
conditions, fuel of near-zero sulphur content should be
used.
So far, only a limited number of studies looked at the
effect of soot load on DPF emission performance (e.g.
Pattas et al., 1998; Dementhon and Martin, 1997). The
results of this study show that the DPF soot loading has

an insignicant effect on particle size distributions

downstream of the lter, when the DPF soot loading
is kept at levels typical of normal lter operation, i.e. not
associated with high backpressure built-up. In fact, the
size distributions shown in Fig. 6 demonstrate that there
may be an up to three-fold increase in particle number
concentration depending on DPF soot load, but this
remains within the experimental uncertainty of the low
concentrations downstream of the DPF.
Moreover, it needs to be emphasized that no escape of
nanoparticles was monitored post-DPF when a fuelborne catalyst was used, despite the fact that engine-out

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L. Ntziachristos et al. / Atmospheric Environment 39 (2005) 49254936

nanoparticle formation caused by fuel additives was

reported in the past (Burtscher et al., 1999). Nevertheless, there is the need to specically assess the
potential for Ce emissions in both well running
and poorly running vehicles with traps, in order to
evaluate the impact of Ce release to the environment
based on plausible emissions and hence to address
concerns with respect to secondary emissions of nonregulated pollutants.

Acknowledgements
This work was conducted in the framework of the
Particulates project (Contract no. 2000RD.11091),
funded by the European Commission Directorate
General Energy and Transport. The authors would like
to acknowledge Dr. Panayotis Pistikopoulos, Barouch
Giechaskiel, Athanasios Mamakos and Argyrios Tzilvelis
for support in the experimental and computational part
of this work.

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