Sensor for detecting the amount of a reducing agent and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas

Abstract

System arrangement for detecting the amount of a reducing agent (12) and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas (18), with a first pollutant sensor (26) which is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent and for outputting a first measurement signal (28) which is proportional to the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas (18) for use upstream of a filter device (20) for selectively reducing the reducing agent (12) or the pollutant in the exhaust gas (18), and a second pollutant sensor (30) which is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent (12) and for outputting a second measurement signal (32) which is proportional to the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas (22) for use downstream of the filter device (20), characterized by a filter device (20) which is a diesel particulate filter which is provided for oxidizing the reducing agent (12).

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a system arrangement for detecting the amount of a reducing agent, such as ammonia, and the amount of a pollutant, such as nitrogen oxide, in an exhaust gas, a device for the selective catalytic reduction of pollutants in an exhaust gas, an exhaust gas aftertreatment system, and a method for detecting the amount of a reducing agent and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas. WO 2010 / 068147 A1, which is subsequently published prior art according to Section 3 (2) Sentence 1 No. 3 of the German Patent Act (PatentG), discloses a method for an exhaust gas aftertreatment system of an engine, which comprises at least one SCR catalyst, at least one clean-up catalyst downstream of the SCR catalyst, a urea injector upstream of the SCR catalyst, and a first NOx sensor downstream of the clean-up catalyst.The method comprises the steps of injecting a predetermined amount of urea by means of the urea injector, providing a second NOx sensor between the SCR catalyst and the clean-up catalyst, measuring the NOx content received from the first NOx sensor, measuring the NOx content received from the second NOx sensor, comparing the first measured NOx content and the second measured NOx content with each other, and reducing the predetermined amount of urea if the first NOx sensor measures a higher NOx content than the second NOx sensor.

[0002] Exhaust gases resulting from fuel combustion in a vehicle must be treated to minimize pollutant emissions. For example, the emission of nitrogen oxides should be avoided, as these can not only cause irritation and damage to the respiratory system in humans, but are also responsible for acid rain and smog.

[0003] Such pollutants can be specifically removed from the exhaust gas through selective catalytic reduction. To do this, a reducing agent such as ammonia is introduced into the exhaust gas, the amount of which is dosed according to the estimated amount of pollutants in the exhaust gas. The exhaust gas enriched with the reducing agent then passes through a catalyst, where the pollutants react with the reducing agent and are converted into neutral substances such as water and nitrogen. If the reducing agent dose is too low, however, pollutants remain in the exhaust gas after the reaction. If it is too high, reducing agent remains in the exhaust gas, which is also undesirable because ammonia, for example, is also harmful to health and the environment.

[0004] A pollutant sensor, such as a nitrogen oxide sensor, can provide an output signal for estimating the pollutants present in the exhaust gas exiting the catalytic converter, which can be used to more accurately adjust the required reducing agent dosage. However, the pollutant sensor is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent, so that the information about the pollutant quantity and the reducing agent quantity are mixed in the output signal. Therefore, the pollutant quantity and the reducing agent quantity cannot be determined separately from the output signal.

[0005] Since the amount of pollutants in the exhaust gas cannot be directly determined, selective catalytic reduction is traditionally controlled intrusively. A system imbalance is enforced, and the reductant dosage is adjusted based on the responses measured by the pollutant sensor. However, this intrusive control method leads to suboptimal operation of the entire system, resulting in unnecessary emissions of pollutants and / or reductants with the exhaust gas. Complex calculation algorithms are also required to process the output signal from the pollutant sensor.

[0006] In this respect, the object of the invention is to provide a system arrangement for detecting the amount of a reducing agent and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas, which is technically easier to implement and yet provides improved measurement results.

[0007] The problem is solved by the features of the independent claims. The respective subclaims relate to advantageous developments.

[0008] The invention is based on the idea of ​​selectively filtering either the pollutant or the reducing agent from the exhaust gas after an initial measurement of the pollutant quantity and repeating the measurement. Assuming that the unfiltered component in the exhaust gas has remained constant, two independent measured values ​​are available for calculating the reducing agent and pollutant content in the exhaust gas. The calculation itself is linear and therefore technically simple to implement.

[0009] According to the invention, a system arrangement for detecting the amount of a reducing agent and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas therefore comprises a first pollutant sensor that is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent and is provided for outputting a first measurement signal proportional to the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas and is suitable for use upstream of a filter device for reducing the reducing agent or the pollutant in the exhaust gas. Furthermore, the system arrangement comprises a second pollutant sensor that is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent and is provided for outputting a second measurement signal proportional to the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas, said second measurement signal being provided for use downstream of the filter device. By processing the two measurement signals, the reducing agent content and the pollutant content in an exhaust gas can be measured separately.The system arrangement allows for particularly simple control with a short reaction time of the entire system to changes due to the linear processing of the signals.

[0010] The system arrangement may include a calculation device for determining the amount of pollutant and the amount of reducing agent based on the difference between the measurement signals from the first and second pollutant sensors.

[0011] The pollutant can be nitrogen oxide, the reducing agent ammonia, and the exhaust gas a lean exhaust gas.

[0012] According to the invention, the system arrangement comprises a filter device which is a diesel particulate filter provided for oxidizing the reducing agent.

[0013] The filter device can be designed to filter the pollutant or the reducing agent.

[0014] In a vehicle with a built-in diesel particulate filter provided for oxidizing the reducing agent, this can be used directly as a filter device for filtering the reducing agent, whereby the system arrangement according to the invention can be implemented particularly easily and cost-effectively in a conventional vehicle.

[0015] According to the invention, it is particularly advantageous to completely remove one of the components from the exhaust gas after the first measurement, so that in the second measurement the unfiltered component can be directly extracted from the measurement signal after filtering and only a single calculation is necessary to determine the filtered component.

[0016] The invention also provides a device for the selective catalytic reduction of pollutants in an exhaust gas, including a system arrangement according to the invention for detecting the amount of pollutants and the amount of reducing agent in the exhaust gas at the outlet of the device. The device has an injection device provided for injecting the reducing agent into the exhaust gas at the inlet of the device based on a metered amount dependent on the measurement signals from the sensor. Furthermore, the device has a catalyst provided for reducing the pollutants in the exhaust gas based on the reducing agent. Since the system arrangement according to the invention outputs the amount of pollutants and reducing agents in the exhaust gas separately, the pollutant content in the exhaust gas is not only directly adjustable, but control can also take place in the equilibrium state of the overall system.This allows for optimal dosing of the reducing agent for maximum reduction of pollutants without the need for intrusive control.

[0017] The measured reducing agent concentration in the exhaust gas and thus the resulting optimal dosage of the reducing agent allow conclusions to be drawn about the condition of all technical components involved in the exhaust flow. Using a standardized optimal dosage, which can be specified by the manufacturer, for example, it is particularly easy to determine that the entire system is functioning properly if the calculated optimal dosage complies with the specified standard. Deviations from this standard can therefore be used as a basis for detecting or even correcting hardware errors.

[0018] Furthermore, the measured reducing agent content in the exhaust gas also allows for improved on-board diagnostics of the exhaust gas purification system during overrun. Although experience has shown that the reducing agent cannot always be completely removed from the exhaust gas by the control system during overrun, this is not detrimental to the corresponding zero-point calibration during control, since the system arrangement according to the invention is capable of indicating the reducing agent content in the exhaust gas as an absolute value.

[0019] Finally, the measured reducing agent and pollutant content in the exhaust gas also makes it possible to determine the efficiency of the control system more precisely, which means that the entire system can be operated more efficiently.

[0020] The injection device can be provided for increasing the dosage amount of the reducing agent when an increase in the amount of pollutants is measured and for decreasing the dosage amount of the reducing agent when an increase in the amount of reducing agent is measured.

[0021] The control loop may also include a processing device for mathematically processing the dosing quantity.

[0022] The processing device can be provided for adjusting the dosing quantity such that the amount of reducing agent and the amount of pollutants in the exhaust gas at the device outlet are minimized. Alternatively or additionally, the processing device can be provided for averaging the dosing quantity over time. This allows the standardized optimal dosing quantity to be adjusted during operation to reflect aging of the hardware in the overall system.

[0023] The processing device can also be provided for independent processing of the dosage quantity for different operating ranges of the device.

[0024] The invention also provides an exhaust gas aftertreatment system with the device according to the invention. The system comprises a catalyst, in particular a diesel oxidation catalyst, for oxidizing pollutants in the exhaust gas from an engine, in particular from a diesel engine, which is designed to burn a fuel mixture, in particular a lean fuel mixture. The device according to the invention is provided in this system to minimize nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas from the catalyst. In particular, exhaust gases from the combustion of a lean fuel mixture can thus be particularly effectively freed of nitrogen oxides.

[0025] The invention also provides a method for detecting the amount of a reducing agent and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas. The method comprises the steps of outputting a first measurement signal proportional to the amount of reducing agent and the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas, filtering the exhaust gas by reducing the reducing agent or the pollutant in the exhaust gas, and outputting a second measurement signal proportional to the amount of reducing agent and the amount of pollutant in the filtered exhaust gas.

[0026] In the following, a non-limiting example of application of the invention is explained in more detail with reference to the attached drawing. In Fig.1 shows an exemplary embodiment of an exhaust gas aftertreatment system 2 according to the invention, which is suitable for minimizing the nitrogen oxide content in the engine exhaust gas 4 from an engine 6. The engine exhaust gas 4 is fed to a diesel oxidation catalyst 8, in which hydrocarbon compounds and carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust gas 4 are afterburned. The pre-cleaned engine exhaust gas 10 from the diesel oxidation catalyst 8 is enriched with ammonia 12 from a metering device 14 to be described below and subjected to selective catalytic reduction 16. In this process, nitrogen oxides in the pre-cleaned engine gas 10 and the ammonia 12 react with each other and are converted into nitrogen and water. A diesel particulate filter 20 filters any remaining ammonia 12 from the thus cleaned engine exhaust gas 18 and releases the filtered exhaust gas 22 into the ambient air 24.

[0027] According to the invention, a first nitrogen oxide sensor 26 measures the nitrogen oxide content in the purified engine exhaust gas 18 and transmits the measurement result in the form of a first measurement signal 28 to the dosing device 14. A second nitrogen oxide sensor 30 measures the nitrogen oxide content in the filtered engine exhaust gas 22 and transmits the measurement result in the form of a second measurement signal 32 to the dosing device 14. For technical reasons, both nitrogen oxide sensors 26, 30 are cross-sensitive to the ammonia 12 in the engine exhaust gases 18, 22, so that the measurement signals 28, 32 depend on the nitrogen oxide content and the ammonia content in the engine exhaust gases 18, 22.

[0028] Since the diesel particulate filter 20 in the present embodiment completely filters out the remaining ammonia 12 from the purified engine exhaust 18 and leaves the nitrogen oxide content unchanged, the second measurement signal 32 indicates the nitrogen oxide content not only in the filtered engine exhaust 22 but also in the purified engine exhaust 18. The metering device 14 can therefore determine the proportion of ammonia 12 in the purified engine exhaust 18 from the difference between the second measurement signal 32 and the first measurement signal 28 and appropriately dose the ammonia 12 for the pre-purified engine exhaust 10. List of reference symbols 2 exhaust aftertreatment system 4 Engine exhaust 6 Engine 8 Catalyst (diesel oxidation catalyst) 10 Exhaust gas (pre-cleaned engine exhaust) 12 Reducing agent (ammonia) 14 Injection device (metering device); calculation device 16 Catalyst (selective catalytic reduction) 18 Exhaust gas (cleaned engine exhaust) 20 Filter device (diesel particulate filter) 22 Exhaust gas (filtered engine exhaust) 24 Ambient air 26 first pollutant sensor (first nitrogen oxide sensor) 28 first measurement signal 30 second pollutant sensor (second nitrogen oxide sensor) 32 second measurement signal 20, 26, 30 System arrangement

Claims

[1] System arrangement for detecting the amount of a reducing agent (12) and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas (18), with a first pollutant sensor (26) which is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent and for outputting a first measurement signal (28) proportional to the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas (18) for use upstream of a filter device (20) for selectively reducing the reducing agent (12) or the pollutant in the exhaust gas (18) and a second pollutant sensor (30) which is cross-sensitive to the reducing agent (12) and for outputting a second measurement signal (32) proportional to the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas (22) for use downstream of the filter device (20), characterized by a filter device (20) which is a diesel particulate filter provided for oxidizing the reducing agent (12). [2] System arrangement according to claim 1, comprising a calculation device (14) for determining the amount of pollutant and the amount of reducing agent (12) based on the difference between the measurement signals (28, 32) from the first and second pollutant sensors (26, 30). [3] System arrangement according to claim 1 or 2, wherein - the pollutant is nitrogen oxide, - the reducing agent (12) is ammonia, and - the exhaust gas (18) is a lean exhaust gas. [4] System arrangement according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the filter device (20) is provided for completely removing the reducing agent (12) from the exhaust gas (18). [5] Device for the selective catalytic reduction of pollutants in an exhaust gas, with a system arrangement (20, 26, 30) according to one of the preceding claims for detecting the amount of pollutants and the amount of reducing agent (12) in the exhaust gas (24) at the outlet of the device, an injection device (14) for injecting the reducing agent (12) into the exhaust gas (10) at the inlet of the device based on a metered amount depending on the measurement signals (28, 32) of the sensor, and a catalyst (16) for reducing the pollutants in the exhaust gas (10) based on the reducing agent (12). [6] Device according to claim 5, wherein the injection device (14) is provided for increasing the dosage amount of the reducing agent (12) when an increase in the amount of pollutants is measured, and for reducing the dosage amount of the reducing agent (12) when an increase in the amount of reducing agent (12) is measured. [7] Device according to claim 5 or 6, with a processing device for mathematically processing the dosage amount. [8] Device according to claim 7, wherein the processing device for adjusting the dosage amount is provided such that the amount of reducing agent (12) and the amount of pollutants in the exhaust gas (22) at the outlet (24) of the device are minimized. [9] Device according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the processing device is provided for averaging the dosage amount over time. [10] Device according to one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the processing device is provided for independent processing of the dosage amount for different operating ranges of the device. [11] Exhaust aftertreatment system (2), with a catalyst (8), in particular a diesel oxidation catalyst for oxidising pollutants in the exhaust gas from an engine (6), in particular from a diesel engine, which is intended for burning a fuel mixture, in particular a lean fuel mixture, and a device according to one of claims 5 to 10 for minimizing nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas (10) from the catalyst (8). [12] Method for detecting the amount of a reducing agent (12) and the amount of a pollutant in an exhaust gas by means of a system arrangement according to one of claims 1 to 4, comprising the steps Outputting a first measurement signal proportional to the amount of reducing agent (12) and the amount of pollutant in the exhaust gas, Filtering the exhaust gas by reducing the reducing agent (12) or the pollutant in the exhaust gas, and Outputting a second measurement signal proportional to the amount of reducing agent (12) and the amount of pollutant in the filtered exhaust gas.

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