Patent ID: 8069658

Claim:
A method for regenerating a particulate filter, comprising: calculating a first estimated soot load of a particulate filter based on a pressure drop of an exhaust gas flowing through the particulate filter; calculating a second estimated soot load of the particulate filter based on a mass balance of soot in the particulate filter; calculating a hybrid estimated soot load based on the first estimated soot load and the second estimated soot load, wherein calculating the hybrid estimated soot load comprises selectively applying at least one gate to the first estimated soot load and the second estimated soot load depending on periods of accuracy of calculating each of the first estimated soot load and the second estimated soot load, so as to weight a relative contribution of each of the first estimated soot load and the second estimated soot load to the hybrid estimated soot load; and causing regeneration of the particulate filter when the hybrid estimated soot load is greater than or equal to a threshold value.