Thursday April 26, 2007

Gold going into truck exhaust systems

greencarcongress.com :

Nanostellar, Inc., a start-up developer of catalyst materials, has introduced a gold-containing oxidation catalyst that reduces emissions by as much as 40% more than existing pure-platinum catalysts at equal cost. Nanostellar introduced its first-generation product, based on a platinum and palladium alloy, in mid-2006, and it achieved 25%-30% higher performance than commercial pure-platinum catalysts. NS Gold, Nanostellar's second-generation product, delivers a further 15%-20% performance increase. NS Gold is suitable for heavy-duty trucks; new low-combustion regime, high efficiency diesel engines; ammonia slip catalysts; VOC and natural gas engines.

In recent years, Nanostellar and other producers of catalyst materials have introduced the use of palladium to partially replace the four-times more expensive platinum. The use of gold - currently about half the price of platinum - for diesel emission control further reduces the amount of platinum needed and the overall cost of the catalysts. Gold is not new to catalyst scientists, but this is the first time it has been successfully adapted for use in automotive diesel oxidation catalysts.

(2007-04-26 12:22:21 SGT) [Tech] Permalink

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