Low Mass Electrically Heated Metal Catalyst for Reducing HC/CO Emission from Automobile SI Engine Exhaust

The growing need for clean air has prompted automobile manufacturers to invest large amount of time and money to control the emission from the automobile. The use of catalytic converter is one of the popular methods to control the emission from the vehicle. The catalytic converters are active only after reaching the ‘light off’ temperature which is fairly high and it takes two to three minutes for the catalyst attain the light off temperature from cold start. During this period, the exhaust gases enter into the atmosphere untreated. Low Mass Electrically Heated Metal Catalyst (LMEHMC) is very effective in reducing such emissions during this period as the Electrically Heated Catalyst (EHC) reaches the required light off temperature quickly. In the present investigation, an attempt has been made to control the cold-start emission of a multi-cylinder SI engine using LMEHMC with EHC filled with copper oxide as catalyst of different volumes. It is found that the LMEHMC with an EHC of 145cc volume with copper oxide catalyst reduces cold-start hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emission, when used with existing catalytic converter.