The Ukrainian Times
The technology of manufacturing catalytic neutralizers on ceramic block matrices has been developed at the L.V. Pisarzhevsky Institute of
Physical Chemistry. The catalysts are designed to purify exhaust gases of internal-combustion and diesel engines from toxic components of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, among others.
According to experts’ estimates, the share of exhausts of carbon monoxide from motor vehicles accounts for 60-80% of its total amount, which is discharged in the air in large cities. The imposition of rigid restrictions on the toxic content of exhaust gases discharged from motor transportation in the United States and European countries requires the improvement of existent materials and technologies as well as the creation of new ones to make more efficient purifiers of the exhaust gases of internal combustion.
Tests of the Ukrainian catalytic neutralizers, which were carried out at a combustion laboratory of the Pennsylvania State University and engine stands of the Kharkov-based Malyshev plant, showed that the catalysts are capable of purifying exhaust gases from 92-95% of carbon monoxide, 80-90% of hydrocarbons and 95-98% of nitrogen oxides. It has been established by comparative methods of investigation that the Ukrainian catalytic neutralizers surpass their foreign counterparts made by such firms as Walker of Germany and Linda Gobex of Poland in a number of characteristics including activity and efficiency.
The technology developed in the Institute enables 25-50% saving of platinum group metals consumption during the manufacture of catalysts without a decrease in the efficiency of purification and operating life of catalytic neutralizers. According to calculations done by Ukrainian experts, the catalytic neutralizers, which are designed for engines with the effective volume of 1.2-2.0 liters, may cost between 500 and 800 hryvnias.
Other worthwhile spheres of use of the catalytic neutralizers on ceramic block matrices could be purification of waste gases discharged by industrial enterprises and from the stationary engines of diesel electric plants. In addition, the catalytic neutralizers could be used in the high-temperature processes of producing catalysis, for instance, in the catalytic conversion of methane gas in the course of production of synthetic ammonia.
Currently, experimental tests of the developed catalysts are being carried out at several chemical industry enterprises.
