ANALYSIS OF DIESEL ENGINE EXHAUST BY ULTRAVIOLET ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY

Abstract

Ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy was used for the analysis of exhaust from internal combustion engines. This technique employs a single pass absorption cell with a high speed photodiode array detector. Differential absorption was used to quantify analytes and to correct for changes in cell transmission. Sulfur dioxide, ammonia, and nitric oxide were detected with little interference from other species. The results obtained using this method compared very favorably with the results obtained using infrared absorption and chemiluminescence techniques.

Keywords:

• Diesel exhaust
• UV
• Photodiode array
• Sulfur dioxide
• Ammonia
• Nitric oxide

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was sponsored through subcontracts with Oak Ridge National Laboratory managed by UT-Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR-22800. The authors would also like to thank Ron Graves, Brian West, Scott Sluder, Robert Wagner, Mike Kass, and James Wade for their help in this work.