Center for Automotive Catalytic Systems Aachen
Exhaust gas aftertreatment, especially of combustion engines, has been the focus of multi-variant and intensive fundamental research for decades. In future, improving standards of environment will still require an advanced performance of exhaust gas catalysts. Important aims for working with catalyst systems are increased activity as well lower costs and improved stability.
Therefore, the approach of the Project House is defined by using reactive material without or only small amounts of noble metal and optimizing it in regard to the actual application in engines. Realizing this aim, beside active material, even diffusion and material transport processes are analyzed and optimized. Eventually, depicting the process from development up to utilization is ensured by testing the operation and interaction of components of the catalysts produced at ACA. Hence, research work at ACA covers the issue-areas from material development to carrier structures to system integration.
At the Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer a new measurement technique is developed for in situ characterization of material transport in the boundary layer between the free gas flow and the catalytic surface. Thereto, a FTIR spectrometer is placed at an overcurrent reactor. This method enables the species measurement without disturbing the boundary layer, which is crucial for material transport.