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US DEPARTMENT OF Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has licensed a new low-cost catalyst that reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to European standards without the reductant technology used in European vehicles.

The easily-retrofittable technology uses inexpensive metals – copper and cerium – and uses diesel fuel as a reductant rather than conventional European technology that incorporates urea or ammonia. It reduces NOx emissions by 95-100%, in-line with European systems, and also saves on cost and mass, which further improves emissions.

The Diesel DeNOx Catalyst is a coating applied to a ceramic brick, like a catalytic converter, which is installed in a vehicle's emissions system. The technology works in conjunction with the particulate matter trap's filter. The filter removes soot from diesel exhaust, which is then processed by the catalyst to remove NOx emissions.

Christopher Marshall, Argonne project development chemist says:"The diesel fuel reduces the NOx to nitrogen, a harmless compound that composes about 72% of the Earth's atmosphere. The catalyst achieves such high rates of conversion because of its interactions with the hydrocarbons in the diesel fuel. The reduction in NOx emissions comes as a result of its conversion into nitrogen."

Marshall says the technology is suited to diesel engines because water vapour is always present and this improves the catalyst performance too.

The technology is licensed to US start-up company Integrated Fuel Technologies (IFT), which will use the technology in its products and sell them on to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

IFT president Robert Firebaugh, says: "OEMs like Paccar, Cummins, Siemens, BASF, Corning, and John Deere have expressed an interest."