Design, analysis and fabrication of lanthanum strontium manganite catalytic converter

Abstract

With the ever-increasing pollution rate, we have considered the need to control automobile emissions which are responsible for global warming. In this paper, we aim to propose a cost effective and sustainable design prototype of a catalytic converter. Design was done by considering some of the problems in existing catalytic converter like back pressure, cold start emissions and cost. The new design of the Catalytic converter includes a new catalyst i.e. Lanthanum Strontium Manganite (LSM) with a piecewise placement approach and a hexagonal random cell shape which is in contrast with the existing platinum-palladium catalyst and honeycomb structure. Analysis of the design of Catalytic converter was done which included the ANSYS CFD and mode shape analysis. The cold start emissions were reduced by using a method to pre - heat the air at the input of the converter shell using Arduino controlled heat plug. The testing of the converter assembly was done on a single cylinder Briggs & Stratton Engine and results were taken using Exhaust Gas Analyser which gave us the emission outputs with and without catalytic converter at idling and full rpm of the engine.