The impact of active ceramic coating implementation on gasoline engine exhaust toxicity

One of the ways for toxic emissions reduction from internal combustion engines, beside external Exhaust purification systems and alternative fuels, is direct intervention into engine combustion process. The inner catalyst application, in form of ceramic active coating applied inside of combustion chamber, is one of the examples of that kind of solution. The application of active coating inside of a compression-ignition engine (diesel engine) may have an important impact on several stages of combustion process: fuel cracking, fore-flame phase, combustion phase and secondary combustion phase. Investigations of such construction are very rare in the literature. The paper presents the results of the researches which aim was analysis of inner catalyst application impact on toxic emissions. As a catalyst platinum and rhodium was used. As a catalyst support and local thermal barrier a zirconium ceramic coating was used. The catalyst was located on the gasoline engine valves surface. The research was done in Emission Research Laboratory of the Division of Motor Vehicles and Internal Combustion Engines. The analysis was done according to European standard (EN ISO 16017-1: 2006) on gas chromatograph (Yarian 450 GC) equipped in capillary column and flame-ionization detector (FID). The results of the researches proofed effectiveness of that solution on toxic emissions limitation.