Disambiguation of Catalytic Converter with Fluid Compounds using Automation and Reducing Cold Start Time with PCM

Abstract

Pollution is the biggest problem in today’s world. Cars are the primary source of air pollution. They emit harmful gasses into the environment like HC, NO, and CO with hazardous health effects. To reduce the pollution cars are assembled with catalytic converter which works on chemical reactions. Due to the continuous use or gasket oil leak, the efficiency of the catalytic converter decreases. The aim of this research is to clean the catalytic converter using different fluid compounds (gaseous elemental compound, Acidic, Alkaline and Water based). For pressurized cleaning, an automatic system was developed which can be fitted before the catalytic converter. The phase change material (PCM) is used to maintain the temperature after the shut of engine which reduces the cold start time. Experimental setup is fabricated, and comparative study was done. Based on the experimental results it was observed that the best performance is obtained when the converter is cleaned with the acidic compound. After continuous use of acidic compound, the catalytic converter gets eroded, so only air and water should be used for pressurized cleaning. Furthermore, the decrease in the level of NO, CO, and HC by 16%, 54%, and 83% respectively was observed during the cold start time. The time was reduced for the cold start from 150 seconds to 75 seconds using the PCM material.