Catalysis is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst. Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quickly, very small amounts of catalyst often suffice; mixing, surface area, and temperature are important factors in reaction rate. Catalysts generally react with one or more reactants to form intermediates that subsequently give the final reaction product, in the process of regenerating the catalyst.
A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device which converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Catalytic converters are usually used with internal combustion engines fueled by gasoline or diesel, including lean-burn engines, and sometimes on kerosene heaters and stoves.
Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) means converting nitrogen oxides, also referred to as NO
x with the aid of a catalyst into diatomic nitrogen, and water. A reductant, typically anhydrous ammonia, aqueous ammonia, or a urea solution, is added to a stream of flue or exhaust gas and is reacted onto a catalyst. As the reaction drives toward completion, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, in the case of urea use, are produced.
Tenneco, Inc. is an American automotive components original equipment manufacturer and an aftermarket ride control and emissions products manufacturer. It is a Fortune 500 company that was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since November 1999 until it was taken private in November 2022 by Apollo Global Management. Tenneco is headquartered in Northville, Michigan.
Paul Hugh Emmett was an American chemist best known for his pioneering work in the field of catalysis and for his work on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He spearheaded the research to separate isotopes of uranium and to develop a corrosive uranium gas. Emmett also made significant contributions to BET Theory which explains the relationship between surface area and gas adsorption. He served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University for 23 years throughout his scientific career.
Secondary air injection is a vehicle emissions control strategy introduced in 1966, wherein fresh air is injected into the exhaust stream to allow for a fuller secondary combustion of exhaust gases.
Jean-Marie Basset is a French chemist, and is currently the director of KAUST catalysis research center.
William C. Pfefferle was an American scientist and inventor.
Carl Donald Keith was a chemist who was inventor of the three-way catalytic converter, which has played a dramatic role in reducing pollution from motor vehicles since their introduction in the mid-1970s.
John Joseph Mooney was an American chemical engineer who was co-inventor of the three-way catalytic converter, which has helped reduce pollution from cars since the mid-1970s
Cerium(III) oxide, also known as cerium oxide, cerium trioxide, cerium sesquioxide, cerous oxide or dicerium trioxide, is an oxide of the rare-earth metal cerium. It has chemical formula Ce2O3 and is gold-yellow in color.
Kathleen C. Taylor is a chemist who won the Garvan–Olin Medal in 1989, and is notable for developing catalytic converters for cars.
Yurii Shaevich Matros was a Soviet and American scientist in the field of chemical engineering, known for his achievement in the theory and practice of heterogeneous catalytic processes. He is acknowledged as a “Godfather” of realization of catalytic processes in forced unsteady state conditions. Matros developed a catalytic reactor with periodic changes of direction of flow rate in packed bed of catalyst. This reactor is widely known in scientific and applied literature as an example of an application of developed theory of forced unsteady processes. Yurii Matros possessed a full doctoral degree of science and was a professor.
Dan Luss is an American chemical engineer, who is the Cullen Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Houston. He is known for his work in chemical reaction engineering, complex reacting systems, multiple steady-states reactor design, dynamics of chemical reactors, and combustion.
Boyapati Manoranjan Choudary is an Indian inorganic chemist and a former senior scientist at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology. He is known for his studies on Nanomaterials to Nanomedicine and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1990, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Rajadurai Foundation was established in 2009 by Sivanandi Rajadurai, the mission of which is to build human potential through advancement of professional aspiration, academic scholarship, protection of environment and societies and gift real hope through all-inclusive partnership and spirituality.
Steven L. Suib is an American inorganic chemist, academic and researcher. He is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at University of Connecticut. He is a director of the Institute of Materials Science and of the Center for Advanced Microscopy and Materials Analysis.
Alexis Tarassov Bell is an American chemical engineer. He is currently the Dow professor of Sustainable Chemistry in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in UC Berkeley's college of chemistry. He is also the Faculty Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is known for his work with heterogenous catalysts and characterizing the mechanisms of these reactions on a quantum level.
Samy El-Shall is an Egyptian-American physical chemist and a researcher in nanoscience, heterogeneous catalysis, molecular clusters and cluster ions, nucleation and ion mobility. He is the Mary Eugenia Kapp Endowed Chair in Chemistry and Commonwealth Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).
Professor Günther Rupprechter is an Austrian scientist, full professor and currently Head of the Institute of Materials Chemistry, Technische Universität Wien. He has worked in physical chemistry, surface science, nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly in the area of catalytic surface reactions on heterogeneous catalysts, identifying fundamental reaction steps at the atomic level by in situ and operando spectroscopy and microscopy.
