STUDY OF CATALYTIC CONVERTOR AND

USE OF FLY ASH WASTE AS AN

ALTERNATE CATALYST
(SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH)

PRESENTED BY-:
AKASH SRIVASTAVA (19ME62R27)
MANISH SINGH (19ME62R26)
ANSHUMAN NATH (19ME62R04)
ARPAN GUPTA (19ME62R23)
BIBEKANANDA BACHHAR (19ID60R03)
 INTRODUCTION
 AIR pollution produced from various sources such as automobiles contributes
major air quality problems in rural as well as urban and industrial areas in
both developed and developing countries.

 It has been projected that around 1300 million vehicles will run by the year
2030.

 Most vehicles operate on combustion of Petroleum, diesel and jet fuels with
large amount of emission of carbon monoxide (CO), unburned hydrocarbons
(HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and unburned particulate matter.

 Carbon monoxide is a noted poison that has an affinity for hemoglobin in the
blood 210 times greater than the oxygen . HC and NOx lead to
photochemical smog in presences of sun light give secondary pollutants like
ozone, nitrogen dioxide & peroxyacyl nitrate which cause also global
ecological problems.

 Hence these emissions must be reduced and thus one the finest choice is
sought to be CATALYTIC CONVERTORS
 WHAT IS A CATALYTIC CONVERTOR ?

A Catalytic Converter is an emissions regulating means that converts Toxic

gases and Pollutants in exhaust gases to less Toxic pollutants.
 CONSTRUCTION
CORE

1.1- CATALYST CORE

For automotive catalytic converters, the core is usually a ceramic monolith

with a HONEYCOMB like structure

These are designed to deliver a high surface area to support the catalyst
washcoat, and therefore is often called a ‘catalyst support’.
1.2 – WASHCOAT

 A transferor for the catalytic materials and is used to scatter the

materials over a high surface area.

 It increases the surface area of reaction for the catalyst with the
engine exhaust.

 Materials -: Aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, or a

mixture of silica and alumina .
1.3 – THE CATALYST

 These are combination of Platinum Group Metals (PGMs): Platinum,

Palladium and Rhodium.

 Rhodium is used as a reduction catalyst, Palladium is used as an oxidation

catalyst, and Platinum is used both for reduction and oxidation.

2. TYPES OF CATALYTIC CONVERTORS

 REDUCTION CATALYTIC CONVERTORS

 OXIDATION CATALYTIC CONVERTORS

 THREE-WAY CATALYTIC CONVERTORS (TWC’s )

2.1 -REDUCTION CATALYTIC CONVERTORS

 A reduction catalyst to regulate NOx .

 It uses platinum and rhodium to decrease the nitrogen oxide

emissions.

2NO → N2 + O2
2.2 OXIDATION CATALYTIC CONVERTOR

 Oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide:

2CO + O2 → 2CO2

 Oxidation of hydrocarbons (unburned and partially burned

fuel) to carbon dioxide and water.

HC + O2 → CO2 + H2O
2.3 - THREE WAY CATALYTIC CONVERTOR

TWCs have the benefit of performing the oxidation of carbon

monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC) and the reduction of nitrogen
oxides (NOx) concurrently.
LIMITATIONS OF USING PLATINUM , PALLADIUM AND RHODIUM

 In unforgiving conditions experienced in the exhaust stream

with temperatures up to 1000 °C the metal in the catalyst is
prone to deactivation by sintering.

 As average life of a vehicle is 80000 km so for surety of

catalyst performance extra metal must be added.

 Cost is very high.

 Performance of these catalyst reduces with time.

 Unavailability of these materials.

USE OF FLY ASH AS THE CATALYST

 The noble metals catalysts have a number of limitations.

 One of the potential materials for catalytic converter is developed from

the waste materials. Fly ash is an industrial waste generated from the
steam power generator industry.

 The fly ash is generally disposed-off in landfill or just dumped in

industrial area in huge amount. With time, fly ash will accumulate in the
location and may cause certain environmental problems.

 So using Fly ash as a catalyst is a way simultaneously to solve the

environmental problems.

 Materials containing high alumina and silica show a particularly low

thermal expansion coefficient and high resistant to fracture due to the
thermal shock .

 The material that contains high Fe can also withstand at high

temperatures due to its high melting temperature up to 1500 0C.
PREPARATION OF FLY ASH

 Fly ash is obtained from coal waste of steam-electric power plant.

 It is then washed with distilled water and dried at 600C until it

reaches a constant weight.

 The fly ash is further activated using H2SO4 and then annealed at
room temperature for 24 hours.

 The solution is then filtered and the fly ash is washed with distilled
water upto pH 7.

 The fly ash is then dried at 1100C for 3 hours.

 Cement is used as adhesive for fly ash moulding.

CHARACTERISATION OF THE CATALYST

 The activation using sulfuric acid was intended to remove the

impurities banded with H+ in the fly ash. Hence, the sulfuric acid
played a role in the substitution of H+ with impurities.

 The percent of Fe and Ca significantly dropped after the activation

from 58.8 and 13.3% to 29.4 and 6.5%, respectively.

 The drop of Fe content after activation elucidated the removal of

impurities during activation.

 Because of the significant reduction amount of Fe and Ca, the

percentage of other components increased.
 A significant increase in the surface area and pore volume of the
catalyst after activation compared to that before activation was
observed by about 40 and 12 times, respectively.

 This finding was ascribed to the role of sulfuric acid in removing the
impurities from the catalyst during activation hence, it caused the
opening of new pores.

 However, the average pore diameter decreased and it could be possibly

attributed to the blocking of pores by the formation of new functional
group during the activation process .
EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS

 The performance of catalytic converter embedded in the muffler

of motor vehicle exhaust system was carried out by connecting it
with an old motor vehicle of Toyota machine made in Japan.

 The air-fuel ratio used for the experiments was 14.7:1.

 . To study the effect of engine speed, the engine was run at the
idle engine speed at around 700, 1000, 1500 and 2000 rpm.

 The air was also injected into the muffler system corresponding
to the absolute air pressure of 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15 MPa.

 To explore the effectiveness of the catalyst, the length of

catalytic converter of 5, 7 and 9 cm embedded in the muffler was
applied.

 The HC and CO contents as the main parameters were measured

using an exhaust gas analyser.
EFFECT OF AIR PRESSURE ON FLYASH CATALTYIC CONVERTOR
EFFECT OF SPEED ON FLYASH CATALTYIC CONVERTOR
EFFECT OF LENGTH ON FLYASH CATALTYIC CONVERTOR
 CONCLUSION

 Fly ash can be activated and used as a catalytic converter in the muffler
of the motor vehicle exhaust system which could reduce emissions of HC
and CO.

 The optimum air pressure to reduce HC and CO emissions was 0.1 MPa.

 Increasing the engine speed decreased the emissions of HC and CO.

 Upon increasing the length of catalytic converter, the emissions of HC and

CO decreased.

 The optimum air pressure was obtained at 0.1 MPa. The minimum
emissions of HC and CO were observed at the engine speed of 2000 rpm,
catalyst length of 9 cm and air pressure of 0.1 MPa with the value of 1260
and 8510 ppm, respectively.
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