Driving down on-highway particulate emissions

It has been reported that particulate emissions from diesel vehicles could be associated with damaging human health, global warming and a reduction in air quality. These particles cover a very large size range, typically 3 to 10 000 nm. Filters in the vehicle exhaust systems can substantially reduce particulate emissions but until very recently it was not possible to directly characterise actual on-road emissions from a vehicle. This paper presents the first study of the effect of filter systems on the particulate emissions of a heavy-duty diesel vehicle during real-world driving. The presence of sulfur in the fuel and in the engine lubricant can lead to significant emissions of sulfate particles < 30 nm in size (nanoparticles). We have demonstrated that when using low sulfur fuel in combination with a uniquely formulated low sulfur lubricant and a suitable filter system that the particulate emissions of a heavy-duty vehicle were reduced to the levels already present in the ambient environment.