PNNL

Abstract

More stringent emissions regulations are continually being proposed to mitigate adverse human health and environmental impacts of internal combustion engines. With that in mind, it has been proposed that vehicular particulate matter (PM) emissions should be regulated based on particle number in addition to particle mass. One aspect of this project is to study different sample handling methods for number based aerosol measurements, specifically, two different methods for removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). One method is a thermodenuder (TD) and the other is an evaporative chamber/diluter (EvCh). These sample handling methods have been implemented in an engine test cell with a spark ignited direct injection (SIDI) engine. The engine was designed for stoichiometric, homogeneous combustion. SIDI is of particular interest for improved fuel efficiency compared to other SI engines, however, the efficiency benefit comes with greater PM emissions and may therefore be subject to the proposed number based PM regulation. Another aspect of this project is to characterize PM from this engine in terms of particle number and composition.