Uno de los componentes más
importantes en el sistema de escape de un vehículo impulsado por hidrocarburos es el catalizador. Dicho dispositivo es de
capital importancia para disminuir la cantidad de gases contaminantes y de
efecto invernadero producidos en este tipo de vehículos. Sin embargo por el uso
de metales como platino, rodio o paladio que catalizan reacciones en su
interior se convierten en dispositivos costosos.
Empa researchers from the
Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory, under the leadership of Panayotis
Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler, have succeeded in finding an innovative solution to
this problem. The team is working on a catalytic substrate made of ceramic foam
which, in future, will replace the conventional monolithic structure. For the
same catalytic performance the novel device is significantly cheaper than the
monolith-based unit. In contrast to the latter, the ceramic foam has in an
irregular structure -- much like a sponge -- which causes the gas passing
through it to flow in a turbulent manner, distributed equally throughout the
whole of its volume. Although the foam catalyst actually has less surface area
than the monolith, this area is much more efficiently utilized. As a result, to
achieve the same effect as a conventional catalytic unit, the ceramic type
requires only one third as much expensive noble metal -- and only half the
physical length.
No comments:
Post a Comment