Carbon Nano Tube Forest on Stainless Steel Mesh as Catalyst Support for Development of Low-cost SCR for Diesel Engine NO Reduction

Akash Kumar; Piyush Avasthi; Gaurav Tripathi; Viswanath  Balakrishnan; Atul  Dhar

Authors

Akash Kumar School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India, 175005
Piyush Avasthi School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India, 175005
Gaurav Tripathi School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India, 175005
Viswanath Balakrishnan School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India, 175005
Atul Dhar School of Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India, 175005

Keywords:

Diesel engine, NOx emissions, Selective Catalytic Reduction, CNT, Washcoat, Substrate

Abstract

It is important to reduce NOx emission from diesel engines in order to implement government emission legislation. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) device is proven as effective technology for reduction of NOx emission. However, to develop a compact, light-weight, economical and efficient SCR especially for low temperature range is still a challenge. Therefore, the present work investigates the application of carbon nano tube (CNT) washcoat for reduction of NOx through SCR. Support used in this investigation is made of commercially available stainless steel wire mesh. Cost of commercially available catalytic converter is very high due to use of the noble metal catalyst and alumina as the substrate material. In this study, low cost substrate made of stainless steel wire mesh is used as support material on which carbon nanotubes are used as washcoat to enhance its catalytic performance. Here, base metal oxides are used as catalyst with small amount of Pd. At 4% catalyst loading, CNT on stainless steel (SS) mesh resulted in 1.4 % and 2.9 % higher NOx reduction (98.15 %) than bare (96.76%) and Al2O3 (95.35%) on SS mesh.