• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.179-189
• /
• 2008

The performance of Lean NOx Trap (LNT) based on the catalysts of Pt/K/Ba/$\gamma-Al_2O_3$ with proprietary washcoat formulation is studied using a bench flow reactor system. To investigate the effect of temperature and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) on the nitrogen oxides (NOx) trapping capacity as well as NOx breakthrough time and final ratio of $NO_2$ to NO of LNT, series of adsorption isotherms are carried out with simulated exhaust gases of the lean burn engines. Since typical operation of LNT requires periodic regeneration with a short rich excursion, where the stored or trapped NOx is released and subsequently reduced to $N_2$, the effect of the duration of lean and rich phase and type of reductants on the NOx conversion is investigated. NOx storage capacity and breakthrough time obtained from adsorption isotherms shows a volcano-type dependence on the temperature with a maximum NOx storage capacity occurring $350^{\circ}C$ and with a maximum breakthrough time occurring $400^{\circ}C$ at all GHSVs investigated in this study. Also, maximum ratio of $NO_2$ to NO is obtained at $400^{\circ}C$ with a GHSV of $75,000\;hr^{-1}$ Lean/rich cycle of 100 s lean and 5 s rich used with a concentration of 1.33% of $H_2$ and 4% of CO in the rich phase is found to be optimum at operating temperature of $350^{\circ}C$ and a GHSV of $50,000\;hr^{-1}$.