Argonne Labs Licenses Inexpensive New Diesel NOx Catalyst for Commercial Use

Argonne Labs Licenses Inexpensive New Diesel NOx Catalyst for Commercial Use

Argonne researcher Chris Marshall holds beaker of new catalyst material while chemist Sundar Krishnan (left) and Steve Ciatti work with equipment that will be used to test it.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

A new diesel engine catalyst that can remove smog-causing nitrates of oxygen (NOx) without costly liquid ammonia injection systems and platinum coatings has been developed by researchers at Argonne National Laboratories and licensed for production by a Washington start-up company.

The manufacturer, Integrated Fuel Technologies Inc., wants to use the material in its emissions-reducing products for large diesel engines, said Robert Firebaugh, president of Kirkland, Wash.-based IFT.

A number of major diesel equipment makers, including John Deere, Cummins and Siemans have talked to IFT about the technology, called Diesel deNOx, and "want to know if the technology can survive continuous testing," Firebaugh said.

If proven successful in the heavy duty diesel market, the catalyst also could reduce the cost and complexity of NOx treatment systems for passenger vehicle diesels as well, Firebaugh told Green Car Advisor.

Reducing NOx has been a major stumbling block for automakers hoping to bring more diesels into the U.S.  Present systems add hundreds of dollars to the cost of diesel vehicles.

Christopher Marshall, the Argonne chemist who led the team that developed the new catalyst, said it can be easily retrofitted on existing diesel vehicles - a potentially huge market given that there are about 11 million of them on the road.

NOx is a smog-causing pollutant regulated both by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. The California standard is the strictest in the U.S. and, Marshall said, is the standard Argonne and IFT are aiming to meet.

Argonne's own tests show the catalyst, which uses a ceramic brick coated with a specially formulated cerium oxide compound, can reduce NOx emission by 95 percent or more.

The catalyst is installed in the vehicle's emissions system and works on particulate matter, or soot, removed from the exhaust by a diesel particulate trap. It uses the vehicle's diesel fuel to reduce the NOx in the soot to simple and harmless nitrogen. 

Most other NOx treatment systems, especially for larger engines including diesel V6 and V8 engines used in pickup trucks, SUVs and some luxury cars, inject a liquid ammonia called urea into the exhaust stream to knock down the NOx. That process requires addition of a urea tank, pump and delivery system and periodic refilling of the urea tank.

Eliminating the urea system reduces a vehicle's weight, which improves its fuel efficiency.

Because it uses a relatively plentiful element (although a member of the so-called rare earth metals family, cerium is one of the more plentiful elements on the planet), doesn't require special pumps or electronics, and has a useful life of about 400,000 miles,  the system is inexpensive compared to other NOx treatments, Marshall said.

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.