Recent development in heavy duty engine air filtration and the role of nanofiber filter media

The development of an engine air filter is based on filter performance requirements, vehicle 's operational environment, available space, filter media properties, and production technology. The design process includes analyses of theoretical and empirical models describing filter media performance and aerosol flow in filter housings and through filter elements. Filter media are carefully selected based upon these models and simplified laboratory tests. The filter element design is evaluated in great detail through a series of laboratory and field experiments. The role of the engine air induction system has increased because of recent engine exhaust particulate and evaporative emission regulations. Engine lifetime, engine emission and fuel consumption depend on the air induction system design and its performance. Providing optimized solutions for these requirements dictates filter development trends. This drives the need for smaller, more compact filters and more efficient filter media with higher permeability. The efficiency can be drastically improved by applying a layer of nanofibers to a cellulose or synthetic substrate. The ISO fractional efficiency test method, that in its final stage of development, can clearly show the advantage of nanofiber filter media. This paper discusses air cleaner design including the newest in-line reduced volume air cleaners and the role of nanofiber filter media in engine air filtration

Development of high dust capacity, high efficiency engine air filter with nanofibres

Although dust-holding capacity is the primary feature of engine air filters operating in dusty environments, efficiency becomes a major factor when selecting an engine air filter. Inertial separators and high porosity or fibrous prefilters are commonly used to decrease the dust load to the main filter while high efficiency is achieved by utilizing submicron or nanofiber fibers in the main filter. The patented multi-stage filter was designed to achieve ultra-high particle removal efficiency and dust holding capacity, and long life in dusty and on highway environments. The main (final) filter is located downstream of the prefilter. The main filter is made ofpleatedfilter media containing nanofibers with a diameter in the range of40 - 800 nanometers. The upstream in-line precleaner utilizing flow-through mini cyclones has separation efficiency of 95%. A high dust capacity, high efficiency prefilter can be used instead of the precleaner. The prefilter is made of vertically lapped nonwoven filter media made from synthetic fibers of different materials to fully utilize the tribological effect. The volume of the prefilter is determined by the performance required and space allotted. This paper discusses the filter performance of high dust holding capacity engine air filters. Filter specifications, design and performance are discussed in detail. Performance characteristics of the media and full size filters were determined using on-line particle counters and the gravimetric test method. Initial and final efficiency, and dust loading performance characteristics, are provided

Exploration of ultralight nanofiber aerogels as particle filters : capacity and efficiency

Ultralight nanofiber aerogels (NFAs) or nanofiber sponges are a truly three-dimensional derivative of the intrinsically flat electrospun nanofiber mats or membranes (NFMs). Here we investigated the potential of such materials for particle or aerosol filtration because particle filtration is a major application of NFMs. Ultralight NFAs were synthesized from electrospun nanofibers using a solid-templating technique. These materials had a tunable hierarchical cellular open-pore structure. We observed high filtration efficiencies of up to 99.999% at the most penetrating particle size. By tailoring the porosity of the NFAs through the processing parameters, we were able to adjust the number of permeated particles by a factor of 1000 and the pressure drop by a factor of 9. These NFAs acted as a deep-bed filter, and they were capable of handling high dust loadings without any indication of performance loss or an increase in the pressure drop. When the face velocity was increased from 0.75 to 6 cm s-1, the filtration efficiency remained high within a factor of 1.1-10. Both characteristics were in contrast to the behavior of two commercial NFM particle filters, which showed significant increases in the pressure drop with the filtration time as well as a susceptibility against high face velocities by a factor of 105