Modeling for catalytic oxidation of volatile organic compound (VOC) in a catalytic converter

Pollutants present in the exhaust gases coming out from the motor vehicles engine are reduced by passing them through catalytic converters thereby decreasing air pollution considerably. In order to improve the design of the catalytic converters, mathematical modeling and numerical simulation helps not only to reduce the number of experiments but is also time saving. In this paper, a one-dimensional model for volatile organic compound (VOC) was developed using combination of chemical reaction, the heat and mass transfer between the exhaust gas and the catalytic surface. The modeled equations for the converter comprised of a set of coupled partial differential equations which are solved using the backward implicit method. The variation of solid temperature along the axial length and effect of varying the catalyst loading and inlet gas temperatures on the conversion of the VOC was analyzed using Pt/δ-Al2O3 catalyst.