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Exhaust system with emissions storage device and plasma reactor
| Details |
Inventors: Hoard, John W.;
Assignee: Low Emissions Technologies Research and Development Partnership (Dearborn, MI)
Primary Examiner: Bhat; Nina
Assistant Examiner:
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Harness, Dickey & Pierce, P.L.C.
An exhaust system for a combustion system, comprising a storage device for collecting NO.sub.x, hydrocarbon, or particulate emissions, or mixture of these emissions, and a plasma reactor for destroying the collected emissions is described. After the emission is collected in by the storage device for a period of time, the emission is then destroyed in a non-thermal plasma generated by the plasma reactor. With respect to the direction of flow of the exhaust stream, the storage device must be located before the terminus of the plasma reactor, and it may be located wholly before, overlap with, or be contained within the plasma reactor. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The exhaust system of the present invention, preferably an automotive exhaust system, comprises a storage device and a plasma reactor.
With respect to the direction of flow of the exhaust stream, the storage device is located before the terminus of the plasma reactor.
Thus, the storage device is located before the plasma reactor, at least partially overlapping the plasma reactor, or within the plasma reactor, with respect to the flow of the exhaust stream.
When the storage device is before or partially before the plasma reactor, then the collected emissions are desorbed prior to destruction in the plasma reactor and the exhaust stream carries the desorbed emissions into the plasma reactor for destruction.
When the storage device is within the plasma reactor, the adsorbed compounds may, but need not, be desorbed before destruction with the non-thermal plasma.
The storage device comprises means for collecting emissions from an exhaust stream.
For example, the storage device may comprise a surface for adsorbing NO.
sub.
x or hydrocarbons or both, or a particulate trap for collecting soot emissions.
Various particulate traps are described in, for example, John H.
Johnson, Susan T.
Bagley, Linda D.
Gratz, and David G.
Leddy, "A review of Diesel Particulate Control Technology and Emissions Effects," SAE Paper No.
940233, printed in "Diesel Exhaust After treatment 1994"(1994); and A.
Colletta, G.
Costa, M.
Pinti, and V.
Scorsone, "Self-Cleaning Electrostatic Muffler for Diesel Vehicles," SAE Paper No.
952389, printed in "Emissions Processes and Control Technologies in Diesel Engines"(1995), both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The plasma reactor is capable of generating a non-thermal plasma, which is used to destroy the hydrocarbon and/or NO.
sub.
x that has been adsorbed.
In the automotive exhaust systems of the invention, the storage device and plasma reactor are placed in the exhaust pipe after the engine and before the end of the tailpipe, so that the exhaust gases must pass through both before being emitted to the atmosphere
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Manufacturing Materials 
