Electronic catalytic converter exported; no takers in India
THE MANUFACTURED by the Chennai based Hydrodrive Systems And Controls Private. Limited, is used for controlling the exhaust emissions from all sizes and models of diesel and gasoline vehicles and engines.
Having won the Asian Innovation Award Gold in 2001 presented by the Dow Jones Group-Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong, it is currently being exported to the Philippines, China and Bangladesh. Renowned vehicle manufacturers - Isuzu Motors, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, KIA Motors have tested and certified the performance of the unit with their vehicles and engines for both emission reductions and fuel savings in actual driving conditions with regular commercial outlet fuels.
Ironically, steps are yet to be taken to use it in Indian vehicles to reduce pollution. This despite the fact that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had certified its efficiency in controlling emission. Several users had also tested its performance on road.
The highlight of the converter is its ability to reduce diesel smoke by over 70 per cent. Particulate emissions are reduced by over 60 per cent.
In the gasoline engines, the carbon monoxide emissions are less than 0.1 per cent by volume and HC emissions are less than 200 ppm for most of the pre 1996 vehicles.
With euro II vehicles fitted with an exhaust converter, the retrofit brings down the emissions almost to zero level in most of the cars. Fuel savings of more than 7 - 10 per cent in real working conditions with normal commercial fuels are achieved.
The novelty of the invention is that one common unit measuring one foot long, one inch in diameter and weighing one kilogram handles all the fuels and also effectively works from a small car to a giant diesel power generation set such as the 908 horsepower Caterpillar and 1000 DWT ship engines.
The device is an economical retrofit for meeting euro II norms by most of the pre 1996 vehicles. It is installed in the fuel system after the fuel filter outlet and before the fuel injection pump inlet or the carburetor. The unit is powered by the vehicle's existing 12V battery through the ignition switch. The device consists of nano structure co-axial wave-guide within a microwave dielectric cavity resonator.
When the fuels pass through the electronic catalytic converter, the fuel molecules are excited by the microwaves and cold plasma waves from the nano wire arrays. With the waves adiabatically compressed, the fuel molecules undergo conformational changes, viscosity and density changes on account of dipole and ionic conduction phenomenon of the molecules interacting with the electric field component of the microwave.
The density, viscosity, activation energy, enthalpy changes of the fuel molecules in real time during flow within the nano structure wave guide improves the fuel quality onboard in real time and changes the chemical rate constant and kinetics of combustion.
This results in improved engine performance such as smoother engine as experienced with higher octane fuels or high cetane diesel facilitating reduced emissions and improved fuel economy.
The science employed in the converter namely the nano structure based wave guide, plasma waves in the microwave and millimeter region in the nano wires are now confirmed by research papers published in international journals.
These confirmations have helped widen the scope of applications in a host of areas such as pharmaceuticals, and chemical and refrigeration industry, conversion of gasoline into gaseous fuel. The catalytic converter can find application in nearly 20-25 more areas.
The world Intellectual Property Organization at Geneva has notified this invention for the grant of a patent in 95 countries.
Our Special Correspondent
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