Rare earth literature abstract in 2023 (1)

Application of Rare Earth in Purification of Gasoline Vehicle Exhaust

By the end of 2021, China has more than 300 million vehicles, of which gasoline vehicles account for more than 90%, which is the most important vehicle type in China. In order to deal with the typical pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) in gasoline vehicle exhaust, the “three-way catalyst”, a landmark gasoline vehicle exhaust aftertreatment technology, has been developed, applied and continuously improved. The newly popular gasoline in-cylinder direct injection (GDI) technology will lead to significant particulate pollutant (PM) emissions, which in turn leads to the generation of gasoline particulate filter (GPF) technology. The implementation of the above technologies depends more or less on the participation of China’s strategic resource – rare earth. This paper first reviews the development of various gasoline vehicle exhaust purification technologies, and then analyzes the specific application modes and effects of rare earth materials (mainly cerium dioxide) in three-way catalyst oxygen storage materials, catalyst carrier/noble metal stabilizer and gasoline vehicle particulate filter. It can be seen that with the development and technological iteration of new rare earth materials, modern gasoline vehicle exhaust purification technology is becoming more and more efficient and cheaper. Finally, this paper looks forward to the development trend of rare earth materials for gasoline vehicle exhaust purification, and analyzes the key and difficult points of future upgrading of related industries.

Journal of China Rare Earth, first published online: February 2023

Author: Liu Shuang, Wang Zhiqiang