ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE OF VARIOUS METAL CATALYSTS USED IN CATALYTIC CONVERTERS WITH MC-2 CONFIGURATION BY C.F.D. TECHNIQUES

Catalytic converters are generally fitted in series with the exhaust pipe of almost all vehicles. These Catalytic converters helps in infiltration of harmful pollutants like hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the exhaust gases released into atmosphere. They oxidize carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide (CO2), and reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) into nitrogen and water vapors. Catalytic converters have become integral part of exhaust system of automobile ever since their first introduction in 1974. More than 96 percent of cars manufactured today are equipped with catalytic converters. Most of the catalytic converters use platinum, Palladium & Rhodium as catalyst to bring about oxidation costly and rarely available. The scarcity and high demand of present catalyst materials necessitate the need for finding out the alternatives. Catalytic converters are available in various designs. Among all other particulate filter materials, knitted steel wire mesh material is selected as filter materials in this paper. In our attempt to analyze filtration performance of catalytic converters working with alternative catalysts for the catalysis, we have chosen copper and Nickel as alternative catalysts for Platinum-Palladium due to similarity in their catalytic properties. Amongst various constituents of exhaust gas, CO and NO are most dangerous pollutants from Global warming point of view. Thus this particular work is concentrated on analyzing filtration efficiency for these two pollutants.