Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4
The DPF system stops up to 85% of particulate matter.
What gets through is too small to be seen at that quantity and too small to be smelled.
All the particulate made by emissions controlled diesels is covertly trying to get inside you.
From what I have been able to find non emissions controlled diesels do make particles of all sizes. But most of the particles are big. They are big enough to be captured by a standard paper air filter installed on the exhaust such as found on underground diesel powered mining equipment. If most of the diesel particulate was DPF sized, a lot of them would go right through a standard paper air filter.
If you have to breath the exhaust, in an underground mining environment diesels are preferred, they create very little CO compared to gas and their exhaust soot is easy to trap.
If you cant see or smell the particulate how are you going to avoid it?
When you choke on diesel smoke that is your body's way of telling you "this is bad for you".
With the 1 to 2 micron particles I guess ignorance truly is bliss, until it catches up with you a few decades later.
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But, remember we are talking about mass. A diesel with a DPF has 85% of the particulate mass removed from the exhaust. This leaves the sub micron particles to pass through. There have been studies that show that DPFs move some of the larger particulate mass into the sub micron range. However, the argument that it is better to have no DPF is utterly false as large particulates are cause for common lung, nose, throat and eye cancers. They cannot be ignored and removing them is the first step. Non DPF equipped diesels still produce a measure of sub micron particles. Studies on sub micron carbon emissions are still on going and inconclusive but I have no doubt the findings will see that long term exposure will result in various maladies and ailments.
There are various methodologies where we can trap and destroy these sub micron carbon particles, but it also behooves the manufacturers to work on the combustion technologies that will prevent these particulates from forming in the first place.