Gasoline catalytic converters

These compounds have been incorporated in the gasolines of the entire world since 1922. Their use will disappear with the general acceptance of catalytic converters with which they are totally incompatible. 

Eurosuper gasoline Engine speed 1500 rpm Equivalence ratio 1,00 Sample point upstream of catalytic converter Relative reactivity factor Total teactivity 2.66 g O lg HC... 

The development of catalytic converters for combustion of unburned hydrocarbons prohibits a return to lead compounds and henceforth refiners are turning to oxygenated compounds that must be used as a gasoline component therefore, in amounts much greater than those of lead compounds. 

A key process in the production of gasoline, catalytic reforming is used to increase the octane number of light crude fractions having high paraffin and naphthene contents (C7-C8-C9) by converting them to aromatics. 

M. P. Walsh, The Advantages ofRemovingEeadfrom Gasoline and Using Catalytic Converters to Control Uehicle Exhaust Pollution, sponsored by Coming Glass Works, 1983. 

Beginning with the 1975 U.S. automobiles, catalytic converters were added to nearly all models to meet the more restrictive emission standards. Since the lead used in gasoline is a poison to the catalyst used in the converter, a scheduled introduction of unleaded gasoline was also required. The U.S. petroleum industry simultaneously introduced unleaded gasoline into the marketplace. 

Photochemical smogs arise worldwide because of the action of sunlight on emissions from gasoline-powered vehicles. Decreased visibility, increased morbidity, and crop damage as a result of photochemical smogs led to introduction of the catalytic converter on automobiles in the United States. This has had only a small impact on the occurrence of photochemical smogs in the United States. 

II. F. Sheets of Vacuum Oil Company, who learned of Houdi y s work and shared his vision for converting vaporized petroleum to gasoline catalytically, invited him to the United States. After a successful trial run, Houdry moved his laboratory and associates from France to Paulsboro, New Jersey, to form a joint venture, Iloudiy Process Corporation, with Vacuum Oil Company. In that year Vacuum Oil Company merged with Standard Oil of New York to become Socony-Vacuum Company (much later Mobil Oil Corporation). 

Sulfur in gasoline contributes to the SO air quality problem and deactivates the catalyst in the catalytic converter. Emissions from a poisoned converter contain higher levels of VOC, NO, and CO. As stated earlier, VCR2 and NOj are catalyzed by sunlight to form smog. 

For the U.S., the new EPA rules will limit sulfur in gasoline to 30 ppm, phased between 2004 and 2006. The automobile industry has made a strong case for lower sulfur because of its effect on the catalytic converter. The converter has the same catalyst as the refinery reformer and it is poisoned just as easily by sulfur. 

One problem with heterogeneous catalysis is that the solid catalyst is easily poisoned. Foreign materials deposited on the catalytic surface during the reaction reduce or even destroy its effectiveness. A major reason for using unleaded gasoline is that lead metal poisons the Pt-Rh mixture in the catalytic converter. 

Catalysts can be poisoned, or inactivated. A common cause of such poisoning is the adsorption of a molecule so tightly to the catalyst that it seals the surface of the catalyst against further reaction. Some heavy metals, especially lead, are very potent poisons for heterogeneous catalysts, which is why lead-free gasoline must be used in engines fitted with catalytic converters. The elimination of... 

Transportation - production of gasoline and diesel from petroleum, fuel additives for greater efficiency and reduced emissions, catalytic converters, plastics to reduce vehicle weight and improve energy efficiency. 

Catalytic treatment of motor vehicle exhaust has been applied in all passenger cars in the USA since the 1975 models. The first cars with electronic feedback systems and three-way catalysts were 1979 Volvos, sold in California. Today all new gasoline cars sold in the Western world are equipped with catalytic converters. It... 

Catalysts were expensive, however, so the petroleum industry did not solve the problem of cheap, lead-free, knock-free gasoline until the 1970s, after General Motors adopted the catalytic converter. Lead compounds inactivate the catalysts, and sophisticated catalytic cracking techniques had to be developed to replace the fuel additive. Ironically, an even more difficult job was finding a substitute for the protective coating that tetraethyl lead formed on exhaust valve seats not even newly developed, extremely hard materials prevent wear and tear on them as well as tetraethyl lead did. 

To meet the new federal emissions standards, General Motors Corporation decided in 1970 to equip its cars with catalytic converters, which lead inactivates. Other carmakers followed suit, and leaded gasoline became one of the few environmentally unsafe products to be forced out of the market place. Get the lead out replaced put a tiger in your tank as the slogan of the environmental 1970s. Ethyl Corporation officials felt betrayed how could General Motors, the father of tetraethyl lead, sell its share of Ethyl for millions of dollars and then arrange for the product s demise ... 

Hydrocol A process for making gasoline from natural gas. Partial combustion with oxygen yields syngas, which is catalytically converted to gasoline in a fluidized bed containing an... 

ARCO has marketed a reformulated gasoline, EC-1 Regular (emission control-1), for older vehicles without catalytic converters, in southern California. These older vehicles were only a small segment of the total car and truck population in the region but produced about a third of the air pollution. ARCO has also marketed a premium reformulated gasoline, EC-Premium. The EPA estimated that the ARCO reformulated gasolines reduced air pollution by almost 150 tons a day in southern California. 

In the U.S., seven million tons of lead were released between the 1920s and 1986, when it was phased out as automakers switched to unleaded gasoline and catalytic converters. 

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