Pirelli Ambiente and LiqTech to Research New SiC Diesel Particulate Filters

31 January 2007

Pirelli Ambiente, a company within the Pirelli & C. Group, and LiqTech A/S, a Danish company with long experience in silicon carbide (SiC) filters for the retrofit market, are initiating a joint research project to improve the performance of SiC Diesel Particulate Filters.

Results from the research will belong to both companies. Pirelli Ambiente will have exclusive rights in Europe, Russia, the former Soviet Republics, Brazil and China. LiqTech will have exclusive rights in the US, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, India and Japan.

SiC is superior to cordierite in heat resistance, and SiC DPF filters have lower maximum temperatures inside the DPF during regeneration compared with a cordierite DPF. This atttribute allows safe, periodic regeneration with a high soot amount in the filter. This is suited to application in passenger car and lighter duty vehicles driving with lower-speed, stop-and-go cycles—and lower exhaust gas temperatures, according to another SiC DPF provider, NGK Insulators. But SiC’s thermal expansion is higher and it is more expensive than cordierite.

LiqTech will also support Pirelli Ambiente in developing technology to produce SiC Diesel Particulate Filters for the original equipment market on a wider scale. The results of this development will be Pirelli Ambiente’s alone, and will be implemented in a new Romanian plant now under construction.

The plant will begin operation in the second half of 2008 and will produce more than 1,300 tons of SiC filters.

LiqTech also produces an SiC diesel oxidation catalyst.

Resources:

• Silicon Carbide & Cordierite DPF Technologies for Diesel Emission Control (NGK)