Patent attributes
When urea water U is injected by an addition nozzle 7 upstream of NOx reduction catalyst 6 incorporated in an exhaust passage 5 of a diesel engine 1 so as to reduce and purify NOx in exhaust G, both a value measured by a NOx concentration sensor 9 upstream of the nozzle 7 and a value measured by a NOx concentration sensor 12 downstream of the catalyst 6 are corrected by using a primary response model depending upon a flow rate and a temperature of exhaust G. The NOx reduction ratio is obtained on the basis of these corrected NOx concentration values. Rectified are time lag of measuring of a value by the downstream NOx concentration sensor 12 from measuring of a value by the upstream NOx concentration sensor 9 in a case of the exhaust G having a lower flow rate, and error due to lowering of NOx reduction processing speed in a case of the exhaust having a lower temperature.