Introduction:

In the automotive industry, reducing carbon emissions has become one of the key areas for innovation and growth. With the inevitable strengthening of regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency, auto industries will continue seeking ways in which to improve their total emissions. An obvious area for improvement is in start-up:

"60-80% of existing hydrocarbon emissions are produced from the time that the converter takes to start operating." [Sideris]

The basic component used in automobiles for reducing carbon emissions is a catalytic converter, which can be seen below. A catalytic converter is primarily charged with filtering the exhaust through a chemical process.

The current design for catalytic converters requires several minutes for the honeycomb structure to reach a "light-off" temperature (temperature at which the reaction takes place - 50% efficient). This process is illustrated in the chart below. Worth noting is that when the catalytic converter reaches operating temperatures (350C) it will reduce the emissions to nearly zero. Our design seeks to dramatically decrease the time it takes for the catalytic converter to reach its operating temperature.

Our proposed design aims to increase the time during which heat can be transferred to the catalytic converter by re-routing the emissions at start-up. Once the catalytic converter has reached a specified temperature, a valve will be switched and the emissions will flow according to existing designs. The schematic for this design proposal can be seen below:

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