A Durable In-Line Hydrocarbon Adsorber for Reduced Cold Start Exhaust Emissions

A new adsorber system for reducing cold start HC emissions has been developed that offers a passive and simplified alternative to previous HC adsorber technologies. The series flow in-line adsorber concept combines existing catalyst technology with a zeolite based HC adsorber by simply incorporating one additional adsorber catalyst substrate into conventional catalytic converters without any valving, purging lines or special substrates. The HC adsorber catalyst consist of a durable zeolite, a washcoat binder, precious group metals and rare earth promoters on standard monolithic substrates. For selected vehicle applications, a single converter containing a light off catalyst, a catalyzed HC adsorber and a standard three-way catalyst can be used in the underfloor position. Even after severe engine aging, the vehicle FTP results show that this new technology remains effective in reducing the cold start HC emissions while providing good CO and NOx conversions. Various other single converter systems containing different catalyst configurations were also evaluated and their FTP test data are compared. Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that the simple series flow HC adsorber system is a viable technology for reducing cold start HC emissions which requires no major changes in the exhaust and engine control systems.