- 9/25/2024
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Catalytic converter
The catalytic converter or catalyzer is a very important part of the car and is located in the exhaust system under the car, and it is a tube designed to pass the exhaust gases resulting from the combustion process in the engine, and its purpose is to convert these harmful gases into harmless gases to preserve the environment and human health.
The inside of the catalytic converter contains a honeycomb structure that contains many small channels through which the exhaust gases flow, and the reason behind this design is to allow the largest number of gases to contact a larger area of the catalyst at one time, thus facilitating the possibility of converting them into harmless gases more quickly and efficiently.
The catalytic converter contains expensive metals to convert the gases, namely platinum, rhodium or palladium and rhodium, and these metals are important to react with the harmful gases coming out of the engine and convert them into gases that are less harmful to the environment, and these metals are what makes the catalytic converter vulnerable to theft in cars around the world.
Since the catalytic converter is an important part of the car and it is also expensive, you must make sure of it and its safety when buying a used car, which is why Motorgy offers you used cars for sale in Kuwait fully inspected starting from the engine and transmission to the catalytic converter and many other parts to ensure that you buy your dream car with comfort and away from the big and expensive catalyzer issues.
Read more: Common engine problems
How catalytic converter works
It is known that car engines produce exhaust gases that are harmful to the environment, and these pollutants include carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds, and the function of the catalytic converter is to reduce the amount of these pollutants and convert them into less toxic gases such as water vapor and carbon dioxide so that they become less harmful to the environment and people.
Inside the catalytic converter, there are two honeycomb ceramic pieces, the first is the reduction catalyst and the second is the oxidation catalyst, and both pieces are covered with precious metals which are platinum and rhodium or palladium and rhodium, and when the hot exhaust from the engine enters through one side of the catalytic converter, these metals work to generate a chemical reaction that breaks down the exhaust pollutants and converts them into less harmful gases, then exits the exhaust pipe to the outside of the car directly.
Read more: Common turbocharger problems
As for the oxidation catalyst, it works doubly, using platinum and palladium to add oxygen to harmful gases and convert carbon monoxide (CO) to the less harmful carbon dioxide (CO2), and it also converts any unburned hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water (H2O).
As for the reduction catalyst, it uses platinum and rhodium to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx), breaking down nitrogen oxide atoms into nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2), which are safer for humans.
The catalytic converter is connected to the vehicle's oxygen sensors and fuel injection system to monitor the ratio of air to fuel being burned in the engine, in order to ensure there is enough oxygen in the exhaust to allow the oxidation catalyst to efficiently burn carbon monoxide and any unburned hydrocarbons.
The catalytic converter or catalyzer is exposed to very high temperatures due to the combustion gases that come out of the engine directly into it, so any overheating issue in the engine or if a large amount of unburned fuel enters it, its temperature will rise so much that the internal part will melt and fail completely.
Read more: Sounds that indicate issues in your car
History of the catalytic converter
The use of catalytic converters began in the nineteenth century, when metal cylinders containing platinum, iridium and palladium-plated filters were used in old French cars to clean the smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes, and Frenchman Eugene Houdry first patented this technology after he moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s and founded a company called Oxy-Catalyst, which was working on installing catalytic converters in industrial chimneys.
After installing his filters on forklift trucks in warehouses, Houdry began researching catalytic converter technology for use in automobiles and filed a patent application for the catalytic converter in 1956.
The popularity of catalytic converters was not great at first due to the large amount of lead in the gasoline that was used as fuel for cars, but with the imposition of strict laws on the amount of lead in fuel, catalytic converters began to spread around the world and became such an important part that all cars must be compulsorily equipped with them.
