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，燃烧更清洁的燃料，特别是当与氢气（H2）结合时。韦斯特波特创新公司位于不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华的加拿大福特汽车公司是一家世界领先的公司，提供技术改造柴油发动机，使其使用天然气、沼气、丙烷和氢气，重点是中型和重型车辆，如公交车、送货车、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，排气中排出的未燃烧的CH4是一种重要的温室气体，其效力是二氧化碳的25倍以上。传统的催化转化器针对减少氮氧化物（NOx）、未燃碳氢化合物和一氧化碳进行了优化，但对甲烷的效率不高

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