Scientists develop cleaner hydrogen combustion engines
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have found a low-cost way to cut NOx pollution from hydrogen-burning internal combustion engines by making the catalytic converter work better.
Scientists develop cleaner hydrogen combustion engines
Researchers at the University of California (UC), Riverside have found a low-cost method of reducing NOx pollution from an internal combustion engine that burns hydrogen by raising the efficiency of its catalytic converter. According to the team, they achieved this by infusing the platinum catalyst with a porous material called “Y-zeolites”.
The problem is that hydrogen internal combustion engines burn hydrogen and oxygen to produce thrust, but a by-product is the chemical reactions triggered in the Earth’s atmosphere, in which nitrogen and oxygen turn into nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) — harmful gases collectively known as NOx.
According to the UC study, catalytic converters with added Y-zeolites convert five times more NOx than catalytic converters containing conventional platinum catalysts. Y-zeolites are a synthetic type of zeolite, a compound of silicon, aluminium and oxygen.