Hot Filtered Crankcase Ventilation for Blow-By Contaminant Removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems for managing blow-by gases in internal combustion engines fail to effectively remove small droplets of oil, soot, and other contaminants, leading to engine performance degradation, reduced fuel economy, and increased ownership costs due to deposits on engine components.
Innovation Solution
A hot filter assembly is integrated with the exhaust manifold or turbine housing of the engine, which burns and filters out remaining contaminants in the blow-by gases using heat transfer from the manifold or turbine, ensuring clean and dry gases are returned to the air intake.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If an oil separator is used to separate oil from blow-by gases, then oil separation is improved, but small droplets of oil, soot, water, and other contaminants remain in the gases
Solution Approach 1:
The ventilation system is divided into multiple stages: an oil separator for primary oil removal, followed by a hot filter assembly for secondary contaminant removal. This segmentation allows each component to specialize in removing specific types of contaminants, with the oil separator handling bulk oil and the hot filter assembly handling residual small droplets, soot, water, and other contaminants that the oil separator cannot fully remove.
Solution Approach 2:
The hot filter assembly acts as an intermediary component between the oil separator and the air intake system. It receives partially cleaned gases from the oil separator and performs additional filtering using heat from the exhaust manifold or turbine housing to burn off and filter remaining contaminants before the gases are returned to the air intake.
2Device complexity
If blow-by gases are routed directly to the air intake, then the system is simple, but contaminants deposit on engine components reducing performance
Solution Approach 1:
The hot filter assembly utilizes the harmful heat from the exhaust manifold or turbine housing, which would otherwise be wasted energy, to burn off and destroy contaminants in the blow-by gases. This converts the thermal energy that would be lost into a useful function for contaminant removal, protecting engine components from deposits while improving overall system efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The exhaust manifold or turbine housing provides heat to the hot filter assembly, enabling the system to clean its own blow-by gases using its own operational heat output. The engine's normal operation generates the thermal energy needed to process and clean the ventilation gases, eliminating the need for external heating systems or additional energy input.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If a hot filter assembly is added to burn and filter contaminants, then emission compliance is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hot filter assembly is integrated with the exhaust manifold or turbine housing, merging two functions into a single structural unit. The housing serves both as part of the exhaust system and as the container for the hot filter assembly, eliminating the need for a completely separate filtering system and reducing overall complexity despite adding the filtering function.
Solution Approach 2:
The hot filter assembly serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a filter to remove contaminants, a heat exchanger to cool the blow-by gases using exhaust heat, and a combustion chamber to burn off volatile contaminants. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components and minimizes system complexity while achieving comprehensive emission control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution reduces CO2, NOx, and particulate matter emissions, enhances engine component longevity, and improves compliance with emission standards by effectively removing contaminants from the crankcase ventilation system.
Implementation Method 1
burns and filters out remaining contaminants in the blow-by gases using heat transfer from the manifold or turbine
Implementation Method 2
burns and filters out remaining contaminants in the blow-by gases
Implementation Method 3
separates the oil from the gases
Data Source
AI summary
Described herein are engine systems, closed crankcase ventilation systems, and hot filter assemblies that are configured to filter out contaminants from the closed crankcase ventilation system prior to being returned to an air intake of the engine system. In some examples, a closed crankcase ventilation system can include an engine comprising a crankcase, an oil separator coupled to the crankcase, and a hot filter assembly coupled to the oil separator and mounted to an exhaust manifold of the engine or a turbine housing of a turbocharger. The hot filter assembly comprises a housing defining a cavity, a gas inlet fluidly coupled between the oil separator and the cavity, a gas outlet fluidly coupled between the cavity and an air intake of the engine, and at least one baffle extending across the cavity and defining a first and second gas pathways on opposite sides of the baffle.