USE OF A DIESEL FUEL PROCESSOR FOR RAPID AND EFFICIENT REGENERATION OF SINGLE LEG NOX ADSORBER SYSTEMS

Lean NOx adsorber systems are one of the primary candidate technologies for the control of NOx from diesel engines to meet the 2007-2010 US emissions regulations, which require a 90% reduction of NOx from the 2004 regulations. Several of the technical challenges facing this technology are regeneration at low exhaust temperatures and the efficient use of diesel fuel to minimize fuel penalty. A diesel processor system has been developed and tested in a single leg NOx adsorber configuration on a diesel engine test stand. During NOx adsorber regeneration, this fuel processor system performs reduces the exhaust O2 level to zero and efficiently processes the diesel fuel to H2 and CO. Combined with a Nox adsorber catalyst, this system has demonstrated NOx reduction above 90%, regeneration of the NOx adsorber H2/CO pulses as short as 1 second and fuel penalties in the 3 to 4% range at 50% load. This fuel processor system can also be used to provide the desulfation cycle required with sulfur containing fuels as well as providing thermal management for PM filter regeneration.