Heated catalytic converter could be homegrown game-changer
The next big discovery in automotive technology was made in a university facility in Hamilton
HAMILTON— Seldom have exhaust emissions been more top-of-mind with the general public than in the past couple of weeks, what with the current Volkswagen situation. A trio of local men may just have part of the answer. John Douglas, Rob Crawford and Anthony Hardenne met casually through mutual friends a few years ago. As car guys will, they soon started talking cars.
All being also technically oriented — Douglas, a tool-and-die maker; Crawford, a materials engineer; Hardenne, a self-described “serial entrepreneur” — they wondered if they might do a project together.
They don’t remember exactly why they started talking about exhaust emissions-control systems. But now they may have come up with the next big thing in automotive emissions technology.
Now bear with me here — this story gets a little bit technical. But it certainly is important. And, it’s a great Canadian story!
First, contrary to popular belief, the car is nowhere near being a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. According to Environment Canada, auto emissions make up just 12 per cent of the green house gas total.
Yet governments keep hammering on the car industry. For instance, by 2025 the United States will have tightened standards for passenger vehicle emissions by some 50 per cent. Canada is sure to adopt the same legislation.
The catalytic converter (catcon) — perhaps the most important emissions-control technology ever invented — is largely responsible for the fact that the exhaust coming out of your car’s tailpipe is often cleaner than the air going into the engine.
The “catcon” consists of a “substrate” — a ceramic honeycomb material that looks like the sponge toffee we used to destroy our teeth with as kids — coated with thin layers of precious metals such as rhodi- um, palladium and platinum. As exhaust gasses pass through this device, a chemical reaction converts the bad gasses into more benign ones. These precious metals are rendered useless by leaded gasoline, which is why we all use unleaded now.
Problem: catcons only work when hot. Roughly speaking, some 80 per cent of exhaust emissions from petroleum-fuelled vehicles occur in the first five minutes of operation, because it takes that long for the catcon to “light off.”
Because of this, catcons are located as close to the exhaust manifold as possible.
Also, in many urban driving conditions, especially in colder ambient temperatures, the catcon can “unlight.” That means it can drop below the temperature necessary for it to do its magic.
Couldn’t the catcon be preheated so it could light off more quickly — and be kept as hot as needed?
Years ago, one low-volume European carmaker tried using essentially a hair dryer to preheat the catcon. All that really did was heat the canister containing the substrate; it didn’t materially affect the temperature of the inner workings.
So our three heroes formed Advanced Technology Emission Solutions (ATES) to see if they could figure out how to make this idea work.
They reasoned that induction heating — applying alternating electric current to a coil surrounding the canister — might generate heat in the precious metallic coatings inside.
But there wasn’t enough metal, precious or otherwise, within the substrate to do the job. So they drove thin wires longitudinally into the substrate.
Voila — the substrate could be heated to working temperature within seconds of a cold start. And, the system could be turned back on if the temperature dropped below the critical threshold.
They call their invention SI-CAT, for “Smart Induction Catalytic Converter.”
Now, the above condenses thousands of hours of massively detailed engineering work into a couple of sentences. Besides, making it work was almost the easy part. They had to get this invention onto the radar screens of carmakers who are loath to accept any ideas from “outside,” thanks to the intermittent wiper fiasco decades ago.
So Hardenne approached some of the world’s largest manufacturers of catcons. The nondisclosure agreements ATES has with them prevent me from telling you who they are, and you probably wouldn’t know them anyway, but they are the Big Guys.
These suppliers felt the idea was worthy of their interest.
But the team needed cold, hard data to prove it worked. So they bought a 2014 Ford F-150 pickup truck with a five-litre V8 engine and installed it on a chassis dynamometer in McMaster University’s Automotive Resource Centre (MARC) in Hamilton to test and fine-tune their invention.
The choice of the F-150 was actually suggested by one of the suppliers. It would be one thing to show that their concept worked on some already-efficient econobox; showing that it worked on the bestselling vehicle in North America, and in the pickup segment, which needs the most help in meeting the new regulations, would be something else.
The results are nothing less than dramatic. They are seeing reductions in the 33-per-cent to 90-per-cent range. These are huge numbers — they aren’t just nibbling around the margins here.
I have mentioned this invention to some big players within the car industry. One chief engineer asked how much power this device takes — if it adversely impacts fuel consumption, it might not be worth it.
Crawford ran the numbers — it would use about one cent worth of gasoline to fire the SI-CAT up. “Vanishingly small,” compared to the benefits.
Separating the CatCon heating function from the exhaust manifold also means the device can be located anywhere along the exhaust system, removing it from competition for that ultra-valuable under-hood real estate in a modern vehicle.
Also, increased efficiency means one SI-CAT can sometimes do the work of the two catcons, which are often needed for certain vehicles, such as big pickups like the F-150.
The SI-CAT will be a little more expensive to manufacture than a conventional catcon. But if you can cut the part count in half? Wow.
More efficiency, cleaner exhaust, better under-hood packaging and perhaps even a cost savings?
No wonder the CatCon suppliers and vehicle manufacturers are showing great interest in this concept. It could be in your garage within a year or two.
And, it was developed in Canada. Freelance writer Jim Kenzie is the chief auto reviewer for Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, write to wheels @thestar .ca with his name in the subject line.