Coco Peat as Agricultural Waste Sorbent for Sustainable Diesel-Filter System

Oil spill incidents are hazardous and have prolonged damage to the marine environment. Management and spill clean-up procedures are practical and rapid, with several shortcomings. Coco peat (CP) and coco fibre (CF) are refined from coconut waste, and their abundance makes them desirable for diesel spillage treatment. Using a filter-based system, the selectivity of coco peat sorbent was tested using CP, CF and peat-fibre mix (CPM). CP exhibited maximal diesel sorption capacity with minimal seawater uptake, thus being selected for further optimisation analysis. The heat treatment considerably improved the sorption capacity and efficiency of diesel absorbed by CP, as supported by FTIR and VPSEM–EDX analysis. Conventional one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) examined the performance of diesel sorption by CP under varying parameters, namely temperature, time of heating, packing density and diesel concentration. The significant factors were statistically evaluated using response surface methodology (RSM) via Plackett–Burman design (PB) and central composite design (CCD). Three significant (p < 0.05) factors (time, packing density and diesel concentration) were identified by PB and further analysed for interactions among the parameters. CCD predicted efficiency of diesel absorbed at 59.92% (71.90 mL) (initial diesel concentration of 30% v/v) and the experimental model validated the design with 59.17% (71.00 mL) diesel sorbed at the optimised conditions of 14.1 min of heating (200 °C) with packing density of 0.08 g/cm3 and 30% (v/v) of diesel concentration. The performance of CP in RSM (59.17%) was better than that in OFAT (58.33%). The discoveries imply that natural sorbent materials such as CP in oil spill clean-up operations can be advantageous and environmentally feasible. This study also demonstrated the diesel-filter system as a pilot study for the prospective up-scale application of oil spills.

Numerical Simulation on Flow Dynamics and Pressure Variation in Porous Ceramic Filter

Using five samples with different porous materials of Al2TiO5, SiC, and cordierite, we numerically realized the fluid dynamics in a diesel filter (diesel particulate filter, DPF). These inner structures were obtained by X-ray CT scanning to reproduce the flow field in the real product. The porosity as well as pore size was selected systematically. Inside the DPF, the complex flow pattern appears. The maximum filtration velocity is over ten times larger than the velocity at the inlet. When the flow forcibly needs to go through the consecutive small pores along the filter’s porous walls, the resultant pressure drop becomes large. The flow path length ratio to the filter wall thickness is almost the same for all samples, and its value is only 1.2. Then, the filter backpressure closely depends on the flow pattern inside the filter, which is due to the local substrate structure. In the modified filter substrate, by enlarging the pore and reducing the resistance for the net flow, the pressure drop is largely suppressed.

Ceramic Filter against the Regeneration Air Pressure and Flow Control System Design

In view of the present diesel filter problem of air pressure and flow control, and designed a new type of filtration and reverse blowing control system, implements the filtration, regeneration of transformation. Using the computer as the core of the whole control system. Pressure regulation of electric valve control is implemented through the filter pressure feedback. The experimental results show that the control system has good steady-state performance, improve the efficiency of the filter.

Internal Flow Study of Diesel Fuel Filter

The size and the number of folds severely affect the performance of the diesel fuel filter. Computational fluid dynamics method was applied to diesel filter internal flow simulation, and flow pressure lost was test to verify the simulation result. CFD result shown that, when the filter paper angle less than 3°, the internal flow resistance of fuel filter grown rapidly. The flow resistance decreased slowly when filter paper angle of greater than 6°. If filter paper angle was less than 3 °, effective filter area of filter decreased sharply, and filtration efficiency was lower than limit. The filter paper dust capacity increased rapidly, when filter paper angle was greater than 4.5 °, which prolonged filter life. In order to ensure the flow resistance, filtration efficiency and service life, the angle of the filter paper should be between 3 ° to 4.5 °.

Lattice Boltzmann simulation on continuously regenerating diesel filter

To reduce particulate matter (PM) including soot in diesel exhaust gas, a diesel particulate filter (DPF) has been developed. Since it is difficult to observe the phenomena in a DPF experimentally, we have conducted a lattice Boltzmann simulation. In this study, we simulated the flow in a metallic filter. An X-ray computed tomography (CT) technique was applied to obtain its inner structure. The processes of soot deposition and oxidation were included for a continuously regenerating diesel filter. By comparing experimental data, a parameter of soot deposition probability in the numerical model was determined.