Apparatus, system, and method for mitigating diesel exhaust fluid deposits and associated conditions

A system for mitigating on-board diagnostic (OBD) faults generated by an OBD system of an internal combustion engine (ICE) system and caused by solid diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) deposits, comprising:

• a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system comprising a DEF injector and DEF decomposition tube, the DEF injector configured to inject DEF into the DEF decomposition tube;
• and
• an electronic controller with instructions that when executed:
• monitors a plurality of OBD signals of the OBD system and sets a diagnostic fault when a monitored OBD signal reaches a fault threshold corresponding with the monitored OBD signal;
• monitors at least one OBD signal of the plurality of OBD signals that is susceptible to solid DEF deposits within the decomposition tube;
• and
• requests regeneration of the DEF decomposition tube when the at least one monitored OBD signal susceptible to solid DEF deposits within the decomposition tube reaches a corresponding regeneration threshold, wherein the regeneration threshold is set to be reached before the fault threshold corresponding with the at least one monitored susceptible OBD signal.

A method for mitigating on-board diagnostic (OBD) faults in an internal combustion engine (ICE) system having a selective catalytic reduction system with a diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) decomposition tube, the method comprising;

• monitoring a plurality of OBD signals;
• setting a diagnostic fault when one of the plurality of OBD signal reaches a corresponding fault threshold;
• monitoring at least one OBD signal of the plurality of OBD signals that is susceptible to solid DEF deposits within the decomposition tube;
• requesting regeneration of the DEF decomposition tube when the at least one OBD signal susceptible to solid DEF deposits within the decomposition tube reaches a corresponding regeneration threshold, the regeneration threshold being reachable before the fault threshold corresponding with the at least one susceptible OBD signal;
• regenerating the DEF decomposition tube according to the regeneration request;
• and
• suspending monitoring of the at least one susceptible OBD signal during regeneration of the DEF decomposition tube.