Experimental determination of the activation energy of soot oxidation during regeneration process in diesel particulate filter

In the models of regeneration of diesel particulate filters the reaction rate of soot oxidation is assumed to be of Arrhenius type temperature dependence. In that form reaction rate has two characteristic coefficients: an activation energy and pre-exponential coefficient. The activation energy determines the increase of the rate of reaction with temperature in the reaction region. The pre-exponential factor depends on model and gives the unit of reaction rate. In the literature, there are many different values of the activation energy, which were determined at different test conditions. Our experimental studies were focused on creating test conditions very close to the real diesel particulate filter. The test bed consists of the ceramic plate covered with soot, which was put in the hot gas flow. The hot gas setups almost adiabatic condition for the reaction region. The flowing gas was the mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. During the experiments, the temperature above the plate and weight of the plate with soot were measured. For different temperatures of gas, we received various rates of soot depletion. The mass fraction of oxygen was changed too. Based on the collected data, the activation energy was calculated.