Patent ID: 7581389

Claim:
A method of monitoring ash buildup in a particulate filter of an emission abatement assembly, the method comprising the steps of: providing an emission abatement assembly comprising a fuel-fired burner positioned upstream of a particulate filter, determining a pressure drop across the particulate filter as a function of exhaust mass flow from an engine to trigger filter regeneration, experimentally generating a data table by mapping pressure drops across the particulate filter as a function of exhaust mass flow at various particulate loading, storing the data table in an electronic controller, determining a current pressure drop across the particulate filter, determining a current mass flow, querying the data table to retrieve an experimentally created limit value that corresponds to the current exhaust mass flow, comparing the current pressure drop to the limit value, and commencing a regenerating cycle if the current pressure drop exceeds the limit value, selectively operating the fuel-fired burner to regenerate the particulate filter to remove soot accumulated therein, generating a control signal subsequent to the regenerating step, and determining a level of ash accumulation in the particulate filter in response to generation of the control signal.