Because insufficient petroleum supply can create an anxious atmosphere at the thought of another possible oil shock, improvement of fuel consumption efficiency as well as reduction of harmful gas of vehicles using petroleum as the main fuel has become...
Because insufficient petroleum supply can create an anxious atmosphere at the thought of another possible oil shock, improvement of fuel consumption efficiency as well as reduction of harmful gas of vehicles using petroleum as the main fuel has become an important subject for automobile manufacturers. The most effective method for increasing the automobile fuel consumption efficiency is a lean combustion of air and fuel in combustion chamber of engine. However, the lean combustion restricts to usage of TWC which can effectively reduce gaseous pollutants under stoichiometric air fuel conditions, because the excess oxygen in the exhaust gas reduces NOx storage reduction catalyst, which was developed for advance the fuel consumption efficiency and NOx reduction under lean air fuel conditions, could not be applied with sufficient effectiveness to lean burn engine systems, because of the sulfur poisoning and durability deterioration of catalyst. Recently, the oil refining technique has been reduced the sulfur concentration in gasoline fuel, and catalytic additives increased the performance of the catalyst to reduce sulfur poisoning and increase hydrothermal durability of fuel. Therefore, NOx storage reduction catalyst maybe mass-produce commercially in future. A vehicle that uses natural gas, which is an alternative fuel of petroleum for automobiles, produces power performance similar to that of a gasoline fueled vehicle. On the other hand, the vehicle emits more clean exhaust gas than the gasoline vehicle. However, lower heating values per unit volume and lower storage capacity of natural gas have limited the use of natural gas as a fuel for automobile. In addition, more stringent emission standards have required that the natural gas vehicle use a catalyst to reduce its emission. Generally, natural gas vehicle demonstrates more clean emission than that of gasoline vehicle due to fuel quality as itself when the combustion occurs under elan air fuel conditions. If the combustion is operated with stoichiometric condition for using TWC and better emission, the advantages of natural gas vehicle are reduced. Because of these reasons, NOx storage reduction catalyst must be used for natural gas vehicles. The NOx storage catalyst can prevent sulfur poisoning when it applied to natural gas vehicles. Because almost all of the fuel consists of methane, natural gas vehicles emit just a small amount of conditions. If the combustion is operated with stoichiometric condition for using TWC and better emission, the advantages of natural gas vehicle are reduced. Because of these reasons, NOx storage reduction catalyst must be used for natural gas vehicles. The NOx storage catalyst can prevent sulfur poisoning when it applied to natural gas vehicles. Because almost all of the fuel consists of methane, natural gas vehicles emit just a small amount of non-methane hydrocarbon(NMHC). Because CH4, which is a type of reductant, is more difficult to resolve than C3H6 or C3H8 at lower temperatures, the catalyst for a natural gas vehicle must be designed differently from that of a gasoline vehicle.
In this work, we designed and manufactured various NOx storage catalysts for the natural gas vehicle. And the catalysts were tested with experiment of synthetic model gas reaction. In the NOx storage catalyst, almost of the alkaline earth metal are NOx adsorbing material with a representative material being barium(Ba). Reaction studies were performed with the barium-based catalysts. The NOx storage capacity and NOx conversion efficiency were investigated by the experiment of the model gas reactions according to Ba contents and precious metal deposit ratios with the catalysts. In addition, the NOx storage and NOx conversion efficiency were investigated according to deposit amount of additives that the titanium oxide and zeolite. Furthermore, the NOx conversion performance and reaction characteristics for the catalyst were estimated after the hydrothermal aging method for all of the catalysts. If CO2 is coexisted with the oxidizers and reductants on the emission, the activity of NOx adsorption and NOx reduction are not activated under the condition of lean and rich air fuel ratios. As the result, the NOx conversion efficiency is decreased at the conditions. Because the H2O effects to the NOx storage capacity and NOx dynamic behavior on the catalytic reactions, the NOx conversion efficiency was decreased at that condition of coexist with H2O.
When the CH4, C3H6 and C3H8 are used as reductants, the temperature window of 80% NOx conversion efficiency was most narrow with CH4. And the temperature window was expanded much lower temperature when the C3H8 was used. That of C3H6 expanded to below 300℃ the temperature window of 80% NOx conversion efficiency.
If the Ba deposit amount of NOx storage catalyst is increased over 43g/ℓ, the NOx conversion efficiency was decreased due to the NOx adsorption site decreasing. Moreover, if the catalyst which Ba deposited over 46g/ℓ is aged to 900℃, the NOx conversion efficiency was decreased due to the agglomeration and sintering of catalytic active phases. The Ba deposit amount in the NOx storage reduction catalyst to achieve superior NOx conversion was about 43g/ℓ.
For the high durability of hydrothermal aging of NOx storage catalyst, the fact was confirmed that the double layered washcoat method is more benefit the single layered washcoat.
If the precious Pt deposit amount of NOx storage catalyst is increased due to the conversion ratio of the NO to NO2 is increased, the NOx storage amount and NOx conversion efficiency tend to increase. However, the over 2.6g/ℓ of Pt deposit amount over upper layer could not increase significantly the NOx storage amount and NOx conversion efficiency. When the catalyst of 3.3 g/ℓ of Pt deposit amount over upper layer exposed to high temperature thermal aging conditions, the NOx storage amount and NOx conversion efficiency were decreased due to the agglomeration and sintering of catalytic active phases and adsorption sites of the Pt, Ba and γ-Al2O3.
For the thermal durability increase and CH4, CO activity temperature decrease, the precious metal Pd was deposited to bottom layer. As the result, the hydrothermal durability was increased, but the oxidation performance of CH4 and CO was not increased due to the decrease of the porosity and reaction sites. The appropriate ratio of Pt, Pd and Rh was 7:7:1, and then the Pt amount was about 3.3 g/ℓ.
When the TiO2 is deposited about 3g/ℓ to the NOx storage catalysts, the NOx storage mount and NOx conversion efficiency tend to decreased generally. However the NOx storage amount and NOx conversion efficiency for hydrothermal aging was increased.