Molten salts are promising catalysts. How to apply in practice?

A diesel soot filter with a Cs₂SO₄ · V₂O₅ molten salt diesel soot oxidation catalyst has been developed. An engine test-bench was used to test it in diesel exhaust gas with ELPI analysis and to deposit diesel soot on filters for temperature programmed oxidation experiments. Molten salt (Cs₂SO₄ · V₂O₅) based catalytic foam has an onset temperature for catalytic oxidation of 320°C. This is a promising temperature for continuous filter-regeneration applications. Unfortunately the liquid state of the catalyst makes it unfit for the very effective wall-flow monolith filter, and necessitates the use of a foam filter as support. The onset temperature of the catalytic foam of 320°C is still too high to justify a change from wall-flow monolith to foam, as ceramic foam is a less effective filter than the wall-flow monolith. Foams are no "absolute" filters, and should be optimized for each application.