Abstract
Diesel particulate filter (DPF), consisting in alternately plugged parallel square channels with porous walls that trap the soot particles, must be periodically regenerated. In this work, a new procedure for the preparation of microwave susceptible catalytic DPFs based on a preliminary controlled chemical erosion of the porous structure was optimized, so obtaining catalytic filters with higher catalyst load (30 %wt CuFe2O4). The filters showed pressure drop values very similar to that pertaining to the uncatalysed filters and a higher regeneration activity: consequently their microwave assisted regeneration phase, compared to the traditional fuel post-injection, allowed an energy saving of about 60 %.