Technical Information On Catalytic Converters

1. Article 2: Globalrefininggroup.com TECHNICAL INFORMATION ON CATALYTIC CONVERTERS You must have heard of catalytic converters. They are devices fit into the exhaust pipes of your cars in order to control the air pollution your car causes. It improves the nature of gases coming out of the exhaust pipe of your car. This device has been mandated for installation in all the manufactured cars of America in order to curb the air pollution issue that the country is facing. It first came to be in 1975, and is still in use. It is even reused these days because of growing environmental concerns about waste. In the future, the need for alternative and eco-friendly technologies will only increase, therefore having some information on the existing technologies will only prove to come in handy. What kind of emissions does your car give off? The first harmful gas that is produced as a part of fuel burning is nitrogen gas. The second is carbon dioxide. The third is water vapour. These three gases don’t cause much harm, except for carbon dioxide, which has recently become famous for melting our ice caps and Arctic glaciers. Among the lethally harmful gases produced through fuel combustion are carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. Carbon monoxide is an outright poisonous gas. Hydrocarbons are the reason for photochemical smog that you see on winter mornings. Nitrogen oxides also contribute to photochemical smog, and are also responsible for causing health problems in human beings. For the purpose of keeping the level of harmful gases in the atmosphere the least possible, catalytic converters are employed. How exactly do catalytic converters work? For a vehicle to reduce harmful emissions coming out of the pipe, car engines these days have a technology that helps them to maintain a near-perfect stoichiometric point. This term is used for the air-fuel ratio that an engine must maintain in order to achieve 100% fuel combustion. When this happens, emissions produced are the least. Now, once the fuel is burnt, the gases are produced. These gases travel through the exhaust pipe to be released into the atmosphere. Catalytic converters consist of two catalysts that intercept these travelling gases and make them react. The reduction catalyst uses a platinum compound, which reacts with nitrogen oxides and causes the oxygen molecule to separate from nitrogen. During the life of the device, entire platinum never gets used up so you can sell catalytic converter to some recycler. Now that nitrogen oxide has been rendered harmless, the oxidation catalyst, a palladium and platinum compound, reacts with the remaining harmful gases and oxidizes them to carbon dioxide. The gases finally coming out of the exhaust pipe are nitrogen and carbon dioxide, which do not cause any harm. The carbon dioxide may melt the ice, though, but that is a long ways off. Since there is considerable use of precious metals in the device, scrap catalytic converter prices are a thing to keep track of. Catalytic converter buyers seek to extract unused precious metals from the expired devices and pay you money for it. To know more about catalytic converter price list, visit Globalrefininggroup.com. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tom Blake is an expert in recycling catalytic converters who also likes to write many interesting articles and blogs, helping people in understanding the process and the many advantages that stem from it. In the US, he recommends GlobalRefiningGroup.com as the most trusted specialist for this job.