Umicore (United States)

Supported metal single atom catalysts (SACs) present an emerging class of low-temperature catalysts with high reactivity and selectivity, which, however, face challenges on both durability and practicality. Herein, we report a single-atom Pt catalyst that is strongly anchored on a robust nanowire forest of mesoporous rutile titania grown on the channeled walls of full-size cordierite honeycombs. This Pt SAC exhibits remarkable activity for oxidation of CO and hydrocarbons with 90% conversion at temperatures as low as ~160 oC under simulated diesel exhaust conditions while using 5 times less Pt-group metals than a commercial oxidation catalyst. Such an excellent low-temperature performance is sustained over hydrothermal aging and sulfation as a result of highly dispersed and isolated active single Pt ions bonded at the Ti vacancy sites with 5 or 6 oxygen ions on titania nanowire surfaces.

The transition to a circular, sustainable society is well on its way. Cities are the place where this is happening bottom-up, supported top-down by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. E-mobility, circular economy and IoT are happening today. Circular cities integrate all aspects of life, connecting across people, economic actors, institutions and geographies. Circular cities are powered by renewable energy and responsible, sustainable materials; have closed resource cycles and are smart. The technical, industrial, economic, cultural and social systems meet, interact and challenge each other. The raw materials industry is an enabler of this transition in society. It provides materials, technologies and solutions. Concurrently, the industry itself needs to adapt to be an essential part of the transition to the future society. Using the e-mobility (batteries) value chain as example, recent and future developments in mobility and responsible material supply will be illustrated, including the impacts and challenges.

Recently, the European Union has adopted a new regulation on Real-Driving-Emissions (RDE) and also China is considering RDE implementation into new China 6 legislation. The new RDE regulation is focused on measuring nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate number (PN) emissions of both light-duty gasoline and diesel vehicles under real world conditions. A supplemental RDE test procedure was developed for European type approval, which includes on-road testing with cars equipped with portable emission measurement systems (PEMS). This new regulation will significantly affect the engine calibrations and the exhaust gas aftertreatment. In this study the impact of the new RDE regulation on two recent EU 6b certified turbocharged direct injected gasoline vehicles has been investigated. A comparison of several chassis dyno drive cycles with two new defined on-road RDE cycles was performed. Moreover, different exhaust aftertreatment systems including state of the art three-way catalyst (TWC) and catalyzed gasoline particulate filter (cGPF) technologies were investigated under real world conditions. The results demonstrate that combined systems of TWC plus cGPF are robust aftertreatment solutions for both NOx and PN emissions under RDE requirements.

Manufacturing large sized structural ceramics is quite challenging, especially for wear, corrosion and thermal shock resistance applications, when monolithic complex shapes, such as cyclones, pipes, cones, elbows and other components with sufficient wall thickness (up to 50–75 mm), are required. Shaping from thixotropic slurries containing particles of various sizes allows processing complex large sized (up to 1 m diameter and height) components for structural applications. This versatile technology that does not require expensive and complicated equipment was successfully applied for manufacturing silicon carbide based large size ceramic components. Heterogeneous SiC based ceramics with additives, such as Al2O3, Si3N4, mullite and some others, have been developed and commercially manufactured using thixotropic casting. The developed composition and processing are based on the oxide bonding mechanism. The structure and some physical properties of SiC based ceramics, e.g. wear resistance, are described. The manufactured components are successfully used for the mentioned applications in mineral, mining, oil and gas processes, power generation, metallurgy and some other areas. This paper summarises the principles of formation of oxide bonded SiC based ceramic large size components using thixotropic casting, which is the result of the development and processing of obtained ceramics in industrial conditions conducted during a number of years and their industrial applications.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Proposed LEV-III emission level will require improvements in NMOG, CO and NOx emissions as measured over FTP and US06 emission cycles. Incremental improvements in washcoat technologies, cold start calibration and catalyst system design are required to develop a cost effective solution set. New catalyst technologies demonstrated both lower HC and NOx emissions with 25% less platinum group metals (PGM). FTP and US06 emissions were measured on a 4-cylinder 2.4L application which compares a close-coupled converter and close-coupled + underfloor converter systems. A PGM placement study was performed with the close-coupled converter system employing these new catalyst technologies. Emissions results suggest that the placement of PGM is critical in minimizing emissions and PGM costs.</div></div>