Square-root unscented Kalman filter for ammonia coverage ratio and input ammonia estimations in diesel-engine urea-SCR system

Abstract The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a resultful technical approach to diminish the NOx emission in the diesel-engine exhaust. And closed-loop control is of vital importance for SCR system to realise high NOx reduction and low ammonia tailpipe leakage. The input ammonia and the ammonia coverage ratio are two crucial parameters, but the cost of a sensor measuring the former is high, and the latter cannot be obtained by the sensor directly. Thus an observer based on square-root unscented Kalman filter is designed to estimate the two parameters. Meanwhile, a three-state model is established to mathematically describe the SCR system. The simulation results show that the observer can make an outstanding estimation on the state variables, and it shows strong robustness to the external interference.