Novel Catalysts for Low Temperature Methane Oxidation

天然气（主要是甲烷，CH4）是一种比汽油更丰富、更清洁的燃料，特别是当与氢（H2）结合时。Westport Innovations Inc.位于不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华，是一家世界领先的公司，提供将柴油发动机转化为天然气、沼气、丙烷和氢气的技术，专注于中型和重型车辆，如公共汽车、送货车辆、垃圾收集车和大型公路卡车。天然气在内燃机中广泛应用的一个重大障碍是，废气中排放的未燃烧的CH4是一种重要的温室气体，其效力超过二氧化碳的25倍。传统的催化转化器，优化用于减少氮氧化物（NOx），未燃烧的碳氢化合物和一氧化碳，在甲烷方面效率不高

Natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4) is an abundant, cleaner-burning fuel than gasoline, particularly when combined with hydrogen (H2). Westport Innovations Inc. of Vancouver, BC is a world-leading company that provides technology to transform diesel engines to operate on natural gas, biogas, propane, and hydrogen, with a focus on medium and heavy duty vehicles such as transit buses, delivery vehicles, refuse collection trucks, and large highway trucks. A significant impediment to the widespread implementation of natural gas in combustion engines is that unburned CH4 expelled in the exhaust is a significant greenhouse gas with a potency more than ~25 times that of carbon dioxide. Traditional catalytic converters, optimized for reducing oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburned hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide, are not efficient at methane