Abstract
Diesel engines are widely used projec-road (trucks, vans) and non-road applications (agricultural tractors, compressors, bulldozers, off-road trucks, forklift trucks, etc.). Despite a number of advantages, diesel engines have a detrimental environmental downside: relatively high Nox and particulate matter (soot) emissions, which prompted stringent vehicle emissions regulation, in Europe as well as in Japan and the USA.
Driven by large volumes, current technologies are mainly developed projec-road applications. Indeed, for certain non-road applications they might be technically not feasible or very expensive to use, and novel technologies are required to ensure that these diesel non-road mobile machinery are able to comply to environmental legislation. Without exception, the currently available catalyst converters make use of precious (expensive) metals like Pt, Pd and Rh.
The aim of the EXOCAT project is to develop a novel catalyst converter for diesel non-road mobile machinery, based on non-precious metals and by applying Air Spray Coating Technology. Technical objectives include:
Reduction of Nox and oxidize CO and HC;
Optimisation of the mixture of oxides;
Improvement of converter performance to Euro III/IV level;
Reduction of the light-off temperature to 100° C.
The work includes:
Selection and testing of prospective cobalt oxides;
Design of catalyst precursors with alloyed hydroxides, which need to include a mix of metals (Co, Ni, Cu, ..);
Selection and optimisation of thermal spraying and its parameters;
Characterisation of the substrate material and coatings by ageing tests on small lab-scale samples;
Prototypes of the catalytic block, with a scaled geometry, will be designed, manufactured and tested;
Furthermore, vehicle roller bench validation of a full-scale converter prototype will be executed on a forklift truck.
Plans will be drawn up to commercially exploit the catalyst technology developed identifying possible markets, pricing and distribution.
Partners
FIAT (CENTRO RICERCHE FIAT), It
CSIC (CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS), Es
KAUNAS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Lt
BERSY, It
METALLISATION, UK
GTV, Lt
FINN KATALYT, Fi
ZREMBUD, Pl
EUROPARAMA, Lt
Official webpage of the project:
http://exocat.europarama.lt
