Principles for the Design of Diesel Oxidation Catalysts

The diesel oxidation catalyst is required to remove hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide from the diesel engine exhaust stream while minimizing the impact of all other features such as cost, space, pressure drop, weight, fuel consumption, etc. The challenge of designing a catalytic converter for a particular application then becomes to: first, understand the emissions and other performance targets and requirements for the engine; second, understand the influence each of the converter parameters has on the overall system performance and; third, optimize the system using these relationships. This paper will explore some of the considerations with respect to the second of the above challenges.