Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol.

, 2 [6] 429–439 (2005)

Ceramic Product Development and Commercialization

Ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters

Joerg Adler*
Fraunhofer Institute Ceramic Technologies and Sintered Materials IKTS, D-01277 Dresden, Germany

Twenty-five years of diesel particulate filter (DPF) developments have shown that ceramic materials are well-suited can-
didates to fulfill the harsh requirements of exhaust after treatment. The introduction of DPF in passenger cars in Europe in
2000 was a real breakthrough from both a scientific and a commercial point of view. Different systems and filter materials can
be used as DPF; however, at the moment silicon carbide wall flow filters seem to be at advantage. There is a continual demand
for cost-effective and reliable materials and systems forced by increasing legal emission standards.

Introduction control technologies like diesel particulate trap and

The diesel engine is still the most efficient internal
combustion engine and is therefore widely used in
heavy-duty trucks and off-road vehicles throughout
the world. The use of diesel engines in passenger cars
also has strongly increased in recent years and is
approaching up to 51.9% (about 7 Mio) of new
vehicle registration in Western Europe now.1 Despite
that less than 2% of cars sold in the United States
are diesel cars, it is hoped that rise in fuel price and
growing sensitivity about greenhouse gas emissions will
further increase the interest in diesel cars in the near
future.
However, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate
matter (PM) in the diesel exhaust are considered to be
very critical pollutants concerning health. To meet fu-
ture emission standards worldwide, exhaust emission
*joerg.adler@ikts.fraunhofer.de
r 2005 The American Ceramic Society
DeNOx systems will be necessary.
Diesel PM can be reduced by better combustion
(higher temperatures and excess of oxygen) in the mo-
tor, but then NOx are raised (so-called PM-NOx trade-
off ). Therefore, the legislation limits both pollutants.
There are two possible ways to reach the PM/NOx lim-
its: PM-filter or NOx treatment (or both for the future).
SCR (selective catalytic reduction of NOx) technology,
well known for power plants, will be introduced in series
for application in commercial vehicles in Europe from
2005 on to comply with the emission standards EURO
4 (2005) and EURO 5 (2008). In the United States the
majority of heavy-duty diesel vehicles will have to be
equipped with filters in 2007 to meet the U.S. Envi-
ronment Protection Agency standards. In passenger
cars, PM filters have been implemented since 2000.
The retrofit market is also expected to show a tremen-
dous increase; about 700,000 PM-filter retrofitted pas-
senger cars are forecasted in Germany. A comprehensive
review about the diesel emission control technique is
given periodically in SAE publications.2–4
430 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Adler
Principles and Function of Diesel Particulate
Filters
Particles and Filtration
Diesel PM is emitted by all kinds of incomplete
combustion of diesel fuel in an engine. It consists of
carbon, inorganic oxides, and hydrocarbons, including
some highly toxic polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
These PM particles consist of primary particles of about
5–20 nm size, which are agglomerated to chains or clus-
ters of typically 50–150 nm size. The size and com-
position are influenced in detail by the motor, fuel, ad-
ditives, as well as the history during motion in the ex-
haust pipe.
Fine particles are defined to be smaller than 10 mm
(PM10) or 2.5 mm (PM2.5). Legislation is applied to all
matter that could be filtrated and measured by gravi-
metrical means. Persistent discussions about the impact
of nanoparticles on health will probably cause a switch
to limits related to number and size of particles in the
future, if appropriate measurement devices are available.
A diesel particulate filter (DPF) device needs a trap
and a system to regenerate the trap, otherwise particles
will block the trap and backpressure will rise. The filter
has to stand the conditions that occur during (thermal)
regeneration.
Although filters with pore sizes down to 50 nm are
commercially available for liquid filtration, it is not use-
ful to use them for gases because of extraordinary pres-
sure drop. Filter materials with large pore sizes are well
known for filtering small particles not as a sieve but in
other ways, e.g., impaction and diffusion (so-called
‘‘Deep-bed-filtration’’—see Fig. 1). As an example,
High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters consist-
Fig. 1. Modes of filtration (after5).
Vol. 2, No. 6, 2005
ing of fiber felts are used to clean up gases/air in clean-
rooms. During filtration, the collected particles can
enhance collection efficiency by the so-called ‘‘Cake-
filtration’’ effect (Fig. 1).
In contrast to a sieve it is important to consider the
effects of detaining particles, too. Collecting and de-
taining particles (aside from particles size, pore size and
filter thickness) are mainly influenced by gas/particles
velocity. Therefore, it is necessary to get a moderate ve-
locity of exhaust gas through the filter. A given exhaust
volume of the engine at full power produces a very high
gas velocity in small-diameter channels, which can only
be diminished by a high cross-sectional area of the filter
geometry.
It is worth mentioning that PM filters also work as
a muffler and can therefore replace the sound-absorbing
system completely or partially, often using the very lim-
ited underfloor space in cars.
Regeneration
Collected particles enhance pressure drop of the
filter. This is why it is necessary to clean the filter, which
is usually done periodically by thermal means. Soot
starts to burn spontaneously at a temperature of about
6001C or is promoted by catalysts (traces of Fe, Cu, or
Ce) at 300–4001C. However, even such temperatures
are not very often available in the exhaust pipe; there-
fore, it is necessary to use technical means to control the
regeneration of the filter.
Electrical heaters or gas burners can deliver high
temperatures without the use of additives. By means of
motor management (post-injection) and an oxidation
catalyst in front of the filter, the exhaust temperature
can also be raised up to more than 4001C to ignite the
soot. For such systems the filter needs a special catalyst
coating, or the soot has to be enriched with catalyst
particles by fuel additives (so-called fuel-borne addi-
tives). Because of the exothermal oxidation of soot there
is a local rise in temperature after ignition depending on
thermal properties of the filter material (thermal capac-
ity and conductivity) as well as exhaust amount and
temperature. It is the worst case to stop the engine after
ignition of the soot in a fully loaded trap. Then tem-
peratures of 10001C or higher can occur locally in the
filter.
Compared with O2 free radicals of oxygen provide
a more effective way to burn soot at lower temperatures.
Johnson Matthey’s ( Johnson Matthey Plc, London,
www.ceramics.org/ACT Ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters
Fig. 2. Porous ceramic structures which can be used for particle filtration: made of sintered powder (on the left), fibers (in the middle), open
celled foams (on the right). Structure sizes can be different and are described in the text.
s
U.K.) CRT (continuous regeneration trap) filter uses
NO2 as the radical source instead of O2, produced by a
specially formulated catalyst, but requires the use of ul-
tra-low sulfur (o50 ppm) diesel fuel and exhaust tem-
peratures 42401C. Normal oxidation catalysts oxidize
soluble organic fraction (SOF) only, which is adsorbed
on particulates.
The choice of the regeneration method depends
on the system which the DPF is used. As an example, a
regeneration release by motor management is hard to
realize in retrofit applications.
Ash Storage
After regeneration no combustible substances re-
main in the filter. They come from fuel additives, oil,
salts from environmental air, motor wear, and consist
mainly of oxides, sulfates and phosphates of iron, cal-
cium, and zinc. If fuel-borne catalysts are used, they will
contribute to the amount of incombustible remains.
The accumulation of ashes leads to a rise in pressure
drop and deterioration of filter capacity and restricts the
lifetime of the filter. A filter material also has to with-
stand the chemical interaction with the ashes at high
temperatures, which will occur during regeneration as
well.
Filter Materials
Pore Size, Shape, and Pore Volume of the Filter
Pore structure (size, volume, and shape) and filter
thickness are responsible for filtration efficiency and also
for pressure drop and materials strength. Very different
431
structures can be used, e.g., those made of sintered
powders, short fiber felts or knitted/weaved long fibers,
and open-celled foams (Fig. 2).
The pore size of (rigid) filters made of sintered
powders is mainly controlled by powder particle size. A
narrow distributed pore size with a mean size in the
range of 10 mm at a filter thickness of about 400 mm is
suited to filter more than 90% of soot particles. Such
materials usually offer a pore volume of about 40–50%;
however, volume can be enhanced to about 60% by
using special pore building substances. Higher pore vol-
umes will lower the material strength dramatically.
Knitted and weaved fibers show pore volumes of
more than 90%, but a large distribution of pore sizes,
which needs a higher filter thickness to enhance filtra-
tion efficiency. Unfortunately, the material selection of
fibers is limited because of technical availability and
price. Besides, small fiber wear is suspected to be un-
healthy, too. Industrially produced open-celled foams
can show pore volumes of about 85–90%, but with cell
size available coarser than some 100 mm only.
The material selection is also limited by the tech-
nical means to produce filters geometries with a high
amount of cross-section area in a small volume.
Pressure Drop and Permeability
Besides high filtration efficiency, low pressure drop
is the main requirement on the filter. The pressure drop
of a gas (or liquid) flowing through a porous material is
described by Darci’s Law and Forchheimer’s Extension
(Equation 1). Specific permeability k and inertial coef-
ficient b are specific properties of a porous material. For
low gas velocities Forchheimer’s Extension can be
432 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Adler Vol. 2, No. 6, 2005

neglected.
Z putational methods.7,8
Dp ¼ dv þ brdv2
k
where Dp is the pressure drop (Pa), Z the dynamic vis-
cosity (Pa
s), k the specific permeability (m2), d the
thickness (m), v the gas velocity (m
s1), b the inertial
coefficient t (m1), r the gas density (kg
m3).
The specific permeability of a porous material
mainly depends on the pore size, pore volume, and
pore shape. The latter is also connected to the tortuos-
ity, which describes the shape and the length of the path
the gas stream is forced to flow through the material.
There are a lot of different and sophisticated models
that try to calculate the permeability. Following Ergun’s
equation, a rough estimation can be made by Equa-
tion 2.
The permeability of ceramic materials that are used
as DPF ranges from about 1012 m2 (wall flow filter) to
109 m2 (fiber or foam filter).
e3
k¼ D2
150 ð1  eÞ2
e is the porosity (), D is the pore diameter (m).
The flow resistance of the whole filter system is
largely influenced by some other factors, too. Inlet and
outlet (contraction and expansion) losses contribute to
the pressure drop as well as channel friction in the wall
flow filter type of DPFs. During operation, the pressure
drop rises by the growing filter cake in the pores or on
the surface of the material.
Recently both the pressure loss behavior and the
thermal effects during regeneration6 of DPFs of the wall
flow filter type have been simulated very well by com-
ð1Þ
Materials Selection
The material should possess high-temperature sta-
bility, resistance against thermal strain, corrosion stabil-
ity, and sufficient mechanical strength to fulfill all the
requirements on filtration, regeneration, and application
in a system. It should have a low Young’s modulus, low
coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and good ther-
mal conductivity to lower the effects of thermal stresses.
Availability for mass production at low prices and low
weight is a prerequisite for automotive applications.
Considering all common materials substances,
there is no material that covers all these demands per-
fectly. Table I shows a selection of candidates compar-
ing properties of pure (dense) materials. The properties
of the filter materials are described in detail in the filter
materials section. A comprehensive article about mate-
ð2Þ rial attributes concerning ceramic DPF materials has
been published recently.9
The properties of the different filter materials can
only be compared directly, if they show the same pore
volume and mean pore size. Unfortunately, there is a
lack of reliable and comparable data in the literature,
mainly regarding strength. Most of the materials are
produced in thin-walled honeycomb shape, which can-
not be measured by common standards with good ac-
curacy, and most of the filters differ in honeycomb cell
size and wall thickness and cannot be compared
properly.

Table I. Material Candidates for Diesel Particulate Filters; Properties Are of Pure (Dense) Materials. Note That a
High Amount of Porosity Will Change Thermal Conductivity, Young’s Modulus and Strength Drastically. Silicon
Is Not Used Alone but in Combination with SiC
Material Cordierite SiC Silicon Mullite Al-Titanate FeCrNi
Density (g/cm3) 2.1 3.1–3.2 2.33 2.9 3.3 8.1
Thermal conductivity (RT) (W/mK) 1–3 90 120 4–5 1.5–3 14
CTE 20–10001C (106 1/K) 0.9–2.5 4.7–5.2 4.4 4.4 0.5–3 17
Young’s modulus (GPa) 130 410 110 150 20 200
Thermal limit for application (air) (1C) 1350 1500 1350 1600 1500 1250
Corrosion resistance  1 o o o 
Price 11   1 1 
These properties cannot be compared directly. A rough estimation gives: 11, very good; 1, good; o, ambient; , negative,  very negative.
www.ceramics.org/ACT
Fig. 3. Principle of honeycomb wall flow filters (on the left, Copyright (2000) Corning Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission) and
volume enhancement of entrance cells (on the right, by courtesy of Ibiden).
Wall Flow Filters
The manufacturing of a high amount of channels in
a ceramic body is well known from the extrusion of ce-
ramic honeycomb catalyst carriers. Alternate plugging of
the channels at the front and backside forces the gas to
pass through the (porous) channel walls (so-called wall-
flow-filter).10 Usually a square cell channel shape in 200
(or 300) cells per square inch (cpsi)w monoliths is used
with a wall thickness of about 350–400 mm. In some
cases a special cell design with larger cells at the filter
entrance is used to raise the ash storage capacity (the so-
called ‘‘Octosquare’’11 or ‘‘wavy cells’’12) (Fig. 3).
The pore size and pore volume of the ceramics are
somewhat different and depend on the regeneration
strategy. Filters using a fuel-borne additive for regener-
ation consist of ceramics with an open pore volume of
about 50% and a narrow pore size distribution of about
10 mm mean size. Filter substrates for washcoat/catalyst
coating show up to 65% porosity and 20 mm mean pore
size.
The overall size of the filter depends on the exhaust
volume of the engine to keep the backpressure low. A
typical standard for passenger cars is 144 mm (5.66 in.)
diameter and 152 mm (6 in.) length (about 2.5 L vol-
ume), showing a filter area of about 1.9 m2 (200 cpsi)
resulting in filtration velocities of some cm/s. The
weight is about 1.8 kg (SiC) or 1.2 kg (Cordierite).
w
cpsi is not a SI-unit however it is common for classification of honeycombs.
Ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters 433
The filters are canned with standard technologies known
from the oxidation catalyst business.
The typical pressure drop of a new filter at an ex-
haust volume of 900 kg/h reaches about 3500–5000 Pa,
estimated to be caused by filtration walls, channel fric-
tion, and flow contraction/expansion by one-third each.
Pressure drop rises during loading, for example to
30,000–40,000 Pa at a soot accumulation of 7 g/L.13
Soot-loading capacity is limited to prevent filter de-
struction during regeneration to about 9–12 g/L
(SiC).14,15 The pressure drop of a DPF and the need-
ed regeneration energy usually enhance the fuel con-
sumption by 2–5%. Regeneration is necessary after
500–1000 km depending on motor and driving condi-
tions. A complete regeneration takes some minutes only.
Wall Flow Filter Materials
Cordierite
Cordierite is a MgAl-silicate, which is made from
natural raw materials kaolin and talc. Cordierite ceram-
ics are sintered at about 12501C in air. Because cordie-
rite has already been used as a catalyst substrate in mass
production, this ceramic has the longest history as a
DPF-material.16 In 1978, Corning Inc. (Corning, NY)
developed the cellular ceramic particulate filter to re-
move soot from diesel emissions. Besides its low price
the main advantage of cordierite is its very low CTE,
which was optimized to be up to 0.4  106 1/K par-
allel to extrusion direction, which diminishes thermal
434 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Adler
stresses during regeneration. Therefore, cordierite DPF
can be produced in a compact monolith, e.g., with
144 mm (5.66 in.) diameter.
s
Cornings Duratrap Ex 80 showed a mean pore
size of 12–13 mm at 50% pore volume and was mainly
used in offroad applications like liftforks. The Japanese
company NGK Insulators Ltd. (Nagoya, Japan) started
cordierite DPF production in 1989.
DaimlerChrysler AG (Stuttgart, Germany) laun-
ched an application in Mercedes passenger cars in Cal-
ifornia between 1985 and 1987; however, regeneration
and thermal stability of cordierite did not satisfy at this
time point out. The main material problem for cordie-
rite filters seems to be the low thermal conductivity,
which can result in thermal spots in unfavorable regen-
eration conditions, exceeding the melting point of the
material. Recently performed research has tried to limit
these thermal spots by optimization of regeneration
management as well as heat capacity17 and pore size/
pore volume of the cordierite filter material (e.g.,
s
‘‘DuraTrap RC’’ by Corning). Another problem of
cordierite filter material is reported to be its restricted
corrosion resistance against ash components like sodium
compounds.18 At the moment there are only some niche
applications in the European DPF market.
Corning has been very active in the development
of alternative materials to cordierite. Besides SiC19 the
so-called NZPs (Na–zirconium–phosphates) were
promising candidates,20 because of a very low CTE
and higher temperature resistance. However, produc-
tion of the NZP filters seems sophisticated and rather
expensive.
Aluminum Titanate
Aluminum titanate is a well-known material for
applications in the metallurgical industry; however, it
was also used in the automotive industry for portliner
coatings and distance segments in catalyst carriers be-
cause of its excellent thermal shock resistance. Like cor-
dierite, aluminum titanate crystals show a high
anisotropy of CTE but to a larger extent, leading to
microcracks in the polycrystalline material causing low
Young’s modulus and low strength, too. Recently,
Corning has developed an aluminum titanate-based fil-
ter material and announced its introduction into the
market in 2005, particularly for light-duty vehicles.21
The structure consists of about 70% aluminum titanate
and Ca/Sr-Feldspar 1 mullite. It is reported to have
Vol. 2, No. 6, 2005
excellent thermal shock resistance and chemical/thermal
durability; however, mechanical strength is rather low.22
Silicon Carbide
Silicon carbide ceramics with different structures
and particle bondings are well-known for very different
industrial applications. Some of these materials, like sil-
icate-bonded or recrystallized SiC, are inherently po-
rous; others like SSiC or LPS-SiC were originally
developed as dense materials. However, in general, all
of these materials can be adjusted to a controlled porous
material to work as a diesel particle filter.
Recrystallized SiC (RSiC): The so-called RSiC is a pure
SiC material that is produced by heating up shapes con-
sisting of a mixture of bimodal SiC powders at
temperatures exceeding 22001C in a protecting gas
atmosphere (Ar). Small SiC grain sublimation and
recondensation result in a grain growth and bonding of
the remaining coarse powder skeleton. Ibiden Co., Ltd
(Oogaki, Japan) started the development of a highly po-
rous RSiC for filtration purposes in 1985. Special addi-
tives were used to get a platelet crystal structure and a
sufficient amount of porosity.23 The honeycomb-shaped
DPF was first reported in 1993.24 In 2000, the first series
of application was started with a porosity of 50 Vol% and
a rather narrow pore size of 10 mm. Now it is available in
a coarser version for catalyst coatings, too. Recently, some
attempts have been reported to engineer the RSiC bond-
ing neck by fine particles25 or additives to enhance
strength resp. toughness of the material.26
SiC filters are usually segmented in brick like honey-
combs with a cross section of about 35 mm  35 mm
and glued together by a low-modulus cement (Fig. 4),
consisting of alumosilicate fibers, SiC powder, and silica
bonding.27 This is necessary to keep the stresses low,
which can occur during uneven regeneration, because
SiC shows a higher CTE than cordierite.
The Danish company Stobbe Tech Ceramics A/S
(Holte, Denmark) (later the companies Notox A/S (He-
dehusene, Denmark) and LiqTech A/S (Gentofte, Den-
mark)) started a coarse 40 mm porous and 1 mm wall
thickness RSiC honeycomb DPF in 199328 and focused
further on small-scale applications with a wide range of
porosity/pore size. Notox and Liqtech are using
coarser and circled segmentation for their honeycombs.
A special technique for plugging was also invented and
applied in some cases.
www.ceramics.org/ACT Ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters
Fig. 4. Segmented SiC-filter (on the left, by courtesy of Ibiden) and monolith cordierite filter (on the right, by courtesy of NGK).
Thomas Josef Heimbach GmbH & Co. (Dueren,
Germany) used a recrystallization process as well, sub-
sequent to an initial reaction bonding of silicon and
carbon additives.29 Other additives like boron were used
to adjust the electrical conductivity of the SiC, because
Heimbach filters were applied with direct electrical heat-
ing for regeneration purposes.30 This system was de-
signed especially for stationary diesel engines and for
applications in locomotives and ships. Heimbach closed
its activities in ceramic filters at the end of 2003.
Silicon-Bonded SiC (Si–SiC): Originally focusing on
cordierite filters, NGK started the development of a sil-
icon-bonded SiC filter material in 2000.31 Because sil-
icon shows very similar thermo-mechanical properties
like SiC, similar strength and durability of the porous
Si–SiC are reported compared to RSiC.32 In detail, the
silicon bond has lower thermal stability and chemical
resistance than pure SiC. Besides the thermal conduc-
tivity of Si–SiC is a bit lower than that of RSiC because
SiC–Si grain boundaries work as a thermal barrier.33
Nevertheless, extensive durability tests have proved a
successful performance to date.34,35
Other SiC-Based Materials: Porous silicate-bonded
SiC filter materials are well established for hot gas clean-
up in pressurized fluidized-bed combustion (PFBC)-
coal combustion installations up to 8501C.36 There are
also attempts to use similar SiC ceramics with honey-
comb shape in an unsegmented design as DPF;37 how-
ever, corrosion and thermal stability are not well proven
to date. The comparable low price of such a material is
435
advantageous because it can be sintered at relatively low
temperatures of about 13501C at air. Another porous
SiC material with a so-called liquid phase bonding can
also be a candidate because of a better controllable sin-
tering and pore size distribution;38 however, it has not
been applied in commercial DPF applications yet.
Silicon Nitride
Si3N4 is also among the ceramic material candi-
dates for DPF. Compared with SiC, silicon nitride ce-
ramics render higher strength, somewhat lower CTE,
but medium thermal conductivity and higher price, if
Si3N4 powders are used. In 2003, Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.
(Yokohama, Japan) reported a Si3N4 filter that was pro-
duced by nitridation of silicon.39 Asahi applied the well-
known reaction-bonding technique for silicon nitride
(so-called RBSN) to a filter material with a defined and
high porosity (9 mm/60%) and tested a nonsegmented
honeycomb. A good thermal shock resistance and high
strength material was reported with whisker-shaped sur-
face grains. Such whiskers are supposed to produce a
lower packed soot cake and therefore a lower pressure
drop. However, whiskers can pose health risks if released
to the environment.
Mullite
Because of its low CTE and both high-temperature
and corrosion stability, mullite is a candidate for DPF as
well, but lacks good thermal conductivity. Unfortunately,
436 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Adler
normal sintering techniques produce only a high
strength mullite with a needle-like crystal structure in
the presence of a rather high amount of glassy phase,
which diminishes thermal stability. A different approach
is described by Dow Global Technologies Inc. (Mid-
land, MI) treating a pre-sintered honeycomb made of
clay and alumina by a catalytic gas-phase synthesis re-
action in a fluorine gas.40 This results in the growth of
needle-like mullite grains building a porous interlocked
network.41
Filters Made of Fibers
Because of a more undefined and coarser pore
structure, filters made of fibers need higher wall thick-
ness to collect particle matter. Fiber filters can show a
very high pore volume of more than 95% and good
permeability but poor strength. Felts or woven struc-
tures made of unbonded fibers are very flexible and
show excellent thermal shock resistance. Common and
cheap fibers with a high amount of glassy phase do not
show sufficient thermal resistance. High-temperature
resistant fibers made of pure alumina or SiC are too
expensive for DPF application. Besides they are more
brittle than normal glassy fibers and hard to manufac-
ture by weaving or knitting technologies. Broken fiber
residuals can also pose health risks.
3M Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing
s
Compa-
ny, (St. Paul, MN) used their Nextel 312 long fibers
made of amorphous Al2O3–SiO2–B2O3 wrapped to a
thick mat around a perforated steel tube, which can
be electrically heated for regeneration purposes. Buck
Fig. 5. Open-celled ceramic foam made of SiC (on the left) and 2.5 l filters made of SiC foams (on the right), manufactured by IKTS.
Vol. 2, No. 6, 2005
Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG (Bondorf, Germany)
developed knitted fiber filter elements with catalyst coat-
ing.42 A wall-flow-like filter design made of a short fiber
containing ceramic was produced by Fleetguard Inc.
(Nashville, TN) and 3M.43 The filter material was built
of 3-mm thick alumina fibers, which were rigidly bond-
ed by a (rather expensive) chemical vapor infiltration
(CVI)-deposited SiC. The filter shape was produced by
paper technology.
All of the concepts showed different properties
compared with honeycomb-shaped wall flow filters.
Common drawbacks are lower filtration efficiency and
restricted long time stability. However, fiber filters can
show better thermal shock stability, lower pressure drop
and weight. At the moment they are applied in limited
and special applications only, mostly for off-road and
stationary diesel engines.
Filters Made of Open-Celled Foams
Coarse open-celled ceramic foams are well-known
for their deep-bed filtration efficiency in molten metal
filtration. Made by the so-called replication technique
out of polymer foams, they form a rigid network of
uniform cells with sizes up to some 100 mm and more
than 90% porosity. Both alumina and cordierite foam
DPFs were tested in the 1980s showing nearly the same
advantages like fiber-based systems.44 A special high-
strength foam made of siliconized SiC was developed in
199645 and has been tested in different filter configura-
tions in an R&D stage with some promising results,46
mainly for retrofit applications (Fig. 5).
www.ceramics.org/ACT Ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters
Competition by Metal Concepts
Porous materials made of high-temperature resist-
ant metals will show similar filtration efficiency when
having the same porous structure as their ceramic coun-
terparts. Thus, filters made of sintered metal particles or
fibers present a real competition to ceramics. The com-
mon advantages of metal filters are high strength and
high thermal conductivity resulting in a fairly good
thermal shock resistance. Additionally, well-developed
technologies of metal engineering can be used to design
and process the filter. The disadvantages are high CTE
and higher weight (density), and the main problems
concern high temperature and corrosion stability as well
as price of special alloyed powders or fibers.
In the 1990s, HJS Fahrzeugtechnik GmbH Co.
(Menden, Germany) started the development of a filter
material, which is constructed of a wire mesh (later an
expanded metal) support, coated with sintered Fe–Cr–
Ni metal particles. The filter shows a porosity of about
45% and 15–20 mm pore size at a thickness of about
400 mm and offers good flexibility in forming different
filter designs,47 see Fig. 6 for example. Nowadays HJS
has been concentrating its activities on a pleated filter
design for passenger car retrofit. Robert Bosch GmbH,
(Stuttgart, Germany) has announced a similar concept
for OEM series applications and Purem Abgassysteme
GmbH & Co. (Unna, Germany) is focusing on heavy-
duty truck filters with a welded bag design.48
Bekaert N.V. Bekaert S.A. (Kortrijk, Belgium) of-
fers an 85% porous sintered nonwoven fiber filter me-
dium made of Fe–Al–Cr alloy fibers. The pleated filters
Fig. 6. Porous metal filter material (on the left) and pleated filter (on the right); by courtesy of HJS.
437
are directly heatable for active regeneration and are de-
signed for offroad applications.49
Emitec GmbH (Lohmar, Germany) developed a sys-
tem with open channels for retrofit applications. It consists
of a channeled metal catalyst support with metal fiber
nonwoven mats between the individual layers. Kinks in-
side the channels force parts of the exhaust on top of the
fiber mat, which traps the particles. The filter is regener-
s
ated continuously by the CRT principle. The filtration
efficiency is rather low (about 30%); however, the filter
cannot block if regeneration does not work sufficiently.
Market Status and Forecast
The oldest market is the retrofit for offroad ma-
chines and vehicles. The development was mainly
pushed by the authorities in Switzerland because of its
importance in tunnel construction places. There are a
lot of very different systems in the market, which are
checked by a special test procedure. The test and the
recommended filter systems are permanently updated.50
Unfortunately, the filter systems and applications are so
much different, that a reliable forecast seems impossible.
DPF for passenger cars in Western Europe are ex-
pected to generate 1.47 billion h revenues by 2012 with
the number of units being of 4.2–4.4 Mio,51 see also
Fig. 7.
The first series production of a diesel passenger car
with a DPF was launched in 2000 by Peugeot S.A.
(Paris, France) with its Peugeot 607 HDI,52 followed by
Citroen C5 and Peugoet 307. The filter system was a
joint development of PSA, Ibiden and Bosch, using a
438 International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology—Adler
Fig. 7. Market forecast for passenger car DPFs in Western Europe
(after Frost & Sullivan 200451). Note that ceramic’s price (SiC
filter) was appx. 25% of complete unit price in 2003.
s
Ce-based fuel-borne catalyst (EOLYS by Rhodia S.A.,
Boulogne-Billancourt, France) for active regeneration
and a 200 cpsi wall-flow filter made of Ibidens RSiC.
This first generation was reported to have maintenance
intervals of about 80,000 km because of ash blocking.
The filter shows a long-term filtration efficiency of more
than 95% and can also stand the hardest driving con-
ditions as was proved in tests in Paris taxis.53
Ash-blocked filters are regenerated by steam washing
at a special service company, which was built by Faurecia
S.A. (Nanterre, France). Using a lower amount of addi-
tives because of an improved formulation the mainte-
nance interval could be extended to 150,000 km in a
second generation. With the introduction of a third gen-
eration using a higher ash storage capacity design (Ibiden’s
Octosquare) in 2004 a lifetime of about 250,000 km is
expected. At the end of the January 2005 PSA announced
the one millionth car equipped with DPF only 18 months
after the celebration of the 500,000 car in June 2003.54
Daimler started with a catalyst-coated filter at the
end of 2003. Up to now, 140,000 cars are sold in
Western Europe (April 2005), 110,000 out of them in
Germany. Starting mid-2005 all Daimler cars in Ger-
many, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria will be
standard equipped with a SiC-DPF.
Meanwhile, almost all important car manufacturers
introduced DPF-equipped cars in Europe or announced
their introduction in the near future. At the moment the
production capacity of SiC-DPF is far behind demand.
At the end of 2004, the production capacity for SiC-
DPF was estimated at about 1 Mio filters/year (750,000
by Ibiden and 200,000 by NGK).
Ibiden started the mass production for the PSA ap-
plication in 2002 in a joint venture with compagnie de
Vol. 2, No. 6, 2005
Saint-Gobain (Courbevoie, France) in Courtenay,
France, which was designed to reach a production vol-
ume of 300,000 filter/year in one production line.55
Recently, Ibiden committed a 477 Mio$ investment in
Dunavarsany, Hungary, to quadruple DPF production
globally to 3 Mio units/r year in 2006.56 Production was
set to start with a capacity of 300,000 units/year in May
2005.
With its Si–SiC material, the NGK company has be-
come the second major player in the DPF filter business
for passenger cars in Europe. In 2002, production started
with 200,000 filters/a in Komaki, Japan.57 At the end of
November 2004 NGK started the installation of a new
facility in Poland, which is announced to be concluded by
2006. NGK will expand manufacturing infrastructure up
to 12 production lines; each of them will have a produc-
tion capacity of approximately 200,000 pieces of DPF
annually. Additionally, NGK invested in its cordierite
production facility in Suzhou, China, to start production
of 150,000 DPF/ year in January 2005.58
In 2004, the company Saint-Gobain, originally
running the joint venture together with Ibiden in
France, decided to build its own production facility.
The forecast for passenger car retrofit business and
the heavy-duty market is somewhat different. The latter
will first be started in the United States in 2007 with a
good opportunity for Corning’s cordierite or Al-titanate
filters, and also for Purems metal filter. Corning’s diesel
business generated $21 million in the first quarter of
2005 compared with $69 million in the whole of 2004.
By 2010, Corning expects the business to be equal in
size to its auto-emissions unit, which produced revenues
of $479 million last year. Corning opened a new large-
scale facility for the production of catalyst substrates and
filters for medium- and heavy-duty diesel applications in
Erwin, NY, in January 2004.59
If these trends are reliable, ceramic diesel particulate
filters will be a great success from the ceramist’s point of
view, comparable to the oxidation catalyst carrier business.
However, local government policies could slightly influ-
ence the trend by tax incentives and pricing of diesel fuel.
The future will see a competition about the cheap-
est way to produce filters and materials that will stand
the further optimized (lower) stresses during applica-
tion. A continuously working filter and regeneration
strategies as well as combined PM and NOx reduction
in diesel exhaust aftertreatment are the challenges to be
taken up next. Ceramic materials will play a significant
role in these developments too.
www.ceramics.org/ACT Ceramic Diesel Particulate Filters 439

30. H. R. Maier, W. Best, U. Schumacher, and W. Schaefer, ‘‘Characteristics and

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