Contribution of Automotive Catalytic Converters

摘要

Catalyst-equipped cars were first introduced in the USA in 1974 but only appeared on European roads from 1985. In 1993 the European Union set new car emission standards that effectively mandated the installation of emission control catalysts on gasoline-fuelled cars. Now more than 300 million of the world's over 500 million cars and over 85% of all new cars produced worldwide are equipped with autocatalysts. Catalytic converters are also increasingly fitted on heavy-duty vehicles, motorcycles and off-road engines and vehicles. The paper will review the technologies available to meet the exhaust emission regulations for cars, light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles and motorcycles adopted by the European Union for implementation during the new century. This includes low light-off catalysts, more thermally durable catalysts, improved substrate technology, hydrocarbon adsorbers, electrically heated catalysts, DeNOx catalysts and adsorbers, selective catalytic reduction and diesel particulate traps. The challenge is to abate the remaining pollutants emitted while enabling fuel-efficient engine technologies to flourish. This is paramount to the achievement of air quality and greenhouse gas targets given the large increase in the number of vehicles on European roads since 1970 and the projections for further increases in vehicle numbers and greater distances driven each year in future.