Durability of Ceramic Catalytic Converters for Motorcycles

Motorcycle exhaust emission standards throughout the world are becoming more stringent. Emission control systems utilizing the catalytic converter are already in production in Taiwan for 2-stroke engine motorcycles. Catalysts designed for 2-stroke engines encounter a more severe exhaust environment than do those designed for 4-stroke engines. The two aspects of increased severity are the higher temperatures and higher stresses due to engine vibrations. Precious metal catalysts have been designed to operate in the thermal environment of 2-stroke engines and such catalysts have been successfully applied to both metal and ceramic substrates. However, until now, only the metal substrate catalysts have been utilized in motorcycle application. Ceramic based catalysts have not been considered because the mounting material that holds the catalyst substrate in place did not have enough durability to withstand the thermal/vibrational forces encountered in 2-stroke engine exhaust.

Ceramic substrates have many advantages such as superior high temperature strength, which is especially important for the 2-stroke engine application, flexibility in cell shape and density, and lower cost. To realize these benefits, efforts were made in this study to develop better mounting systems. The results of this effort indicate that the durability requirements of 2-stroke engine can be met with the ceramic catalyst substrates if the improved mounting designs reported in the present study are employed.