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posted by cmn32480 on Monday June 05 2017, @03:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the this-is-exhausting dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Automobiles are facing increasingly strict emissions regulations in an effort to reduce the amount of harmful air pollutants that are released into the environment. In Japan, for example, the current emissions standards for NOx and nonmethane hydrocarbons are less than 0.05 g/km. Currently, one method of reducing harmful emissions is with a high-performance, three-way catalytic (TWC) converter. This device reduces harmful nitrogen oxides to nitrogen and oxygen, oxidizes carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, and oxidizes unburnt hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water. However, it requires the use of the rare-earth element Cerium (Ce), which is increasing in price and can suffer from supply problems. Professor Masato Machida from Kumamoto University, Japan has been researching ways to reduce the amount of Ce used in catalytic converters and even find an alternative material to replace it.

In their most recent attempt to reduce the amount of Ce in their experimental catalyst, Professor Machida and collaborators from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology (AIST) grafted cerium oxide to MnFeOy (CeO2/MnFeOy), and compared their new catalyst with two reference catalysts, CeO2/Fe2O3 and CeO2/Mn2O3. Upon assessing the oxygen-release profiles through carbon monoxide temperature-programmed reduction (CO-TPR), the researchers found that even though CeO2/Mn2O3 exhibited oxygen release rates greater than CeO2/MnFeOy between ~350 to ~550 degrees Celsius, the experimental catalyst started releasing at the lowest possible temperature. This provided evidence that oxygen release was improved by both combining Fe2O3 and Mn2O3, and grafting CeO2 to the surface.

[...] The researchers then put their new catalyst to the test in conditions that more closely resembled the real world. Using the Japanese standard JC08 (hot start) mode for gasoline engines, they developed two (reference and experimental) real-sized honeycomb catalysts and compared their performance using a four cylinder, 1339 cc, gasoline engine on a chassis dynamometer. The experimental catalyst was a 1:2 wt ratio of 1 wt% Rh-loaded CeO2/MnFeOy and 2.5 wt% Pd/A2O3, and the reference catalyst was a mixture of 1 wt% Rh/CeO2 and Pd/A2O3. The experimental catalyst used 30% less CeO2 than the reference thereby reducing the need for the rare earth metal.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday June 05 2017, @06:33PM (3 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday June 05 2017, @06:33PM (#520893)

    The less of anything we use for a fixed output, the better.

    Not that I expect them to reduce catalytic converter prices anyway...

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:10PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 05 2017, @07:10PM (#520910)

    I'm sure they'll find a way to DRM the process to make them, thereby bricking cars with non-DRM cats.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Unixnut on Monday June 05 2017, @08:31PM

      by Unixnut (5779) on Monday June 05 2017, @08:31PM (#520964)

      > I'm sure they'll find a way to DRM the process to make them, thereby bricking cars with non-DRM cats.

      They already do this. Mid 2000's Mercedes had one of the cats fail, so to save some money the owner bought a third party manufacturer one. It worked fine (emissions OK), but the cars computer detected a "non-OEM part" so kept putting itself into limp home mode. Basically turns out the Merc Cats has a EEPROM chip with a particular serial number in them, which the aftermarket one didn't have. In the end had to get a chip that would lie to the ECU and say it is an OEM part.

      I can only imagine 10 years later, that it is an even bigger PITA to deal with modern cars. I can't say, as all my cars are pre 90's, and I no longer work at a garage, plus most of those cars are under warranty and still handled by the dealer network. In 10 years from now no idea how maintainable they will be.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @01:55AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @01:55AM (#521107)

      In the USA, I think that once a car gets to 25 years old it starts to be exempt from further emissions testing? Something like that. Certainly true classic and antique cars slip through with no problems.