Application of Methods for Determining Total Organic Contribution to Diesel Particulates Available to Purchase

This paper describes the laboratory effort to relate quantities of diesel particulate volatile organics obtained by DFI/GC™ to those obtained by traditional methods of organic analysis. Experiments were designed to investigate the potential usefulness of DFI/GC for determining the organic fraction and unburned lubricating oil contributions of diesel particulate emissions for future technology engines. A 1991 Caterpillar 3176 was used to generate samples during several heavy-duty engine test cycles, including the cold- and hot-start transient FTP and several steady-state conditions. Particulate-laden filter samples were then analyzed for organics by DFI/GC, solvent extraction, and vacuum volatilization. Results obtained using the three techniques were compared using statistical analysis techniques. Results showed that DFI/GC is extremely useful for directly determining the organic fraction of diesel particulate, and provides a better estimation of unburned lubricating oil contribution to the organic fraction than the other methods evaluated.