www.tjprc.org SCOPUS Indexed Journal editor@tjprc.org DESIGN, FABRICATION AND TESTING OF A 4-WAY CATALYTIC CONVERTER FOR REDUCING EXHAUST EMISSION POLLUTION IN A DIESEL AUTOMOBILE ENGINE K. SRINIVASA CHALAPATI 1, 2 & T. VENKATESWARA RAO 3 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation Deemed to be University, Green Fields, Vaddeswaram, Guntur, India 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Anurag Group of Institutions, Hyderabad, India 3 Principal, DBS Institute of Technology, Kavali, Andhra Pradesh, India ABSTRACT Demand for automobiles is increasing by the day all over the world. Diesel oil being cheaper than gasoline, diesel vehicles are being used for personal purposes than the commercial applications. It is projected that by 2030, 1300 million automobiles will be plying on roads. Due to incomplete combustion of fuel oil pollutants like CO, HC, and NOx are released into atmosphere causing negative impact on air quality, environment and human health. Researchers all over the world concentrated on how to reduce the pollutants. Euro norms specify the allowable percentages of CO, HC and NOx in the exhaust gases. Euro norms being implemented in the developed countries have given stringent values, which has led to the development of catalytic converter which is added equipment in automobile. Hitherto in the catalytic converters supplied in modern cars, Platinum and Rhodium metals are used for coating monoliths. These metals are rare, and hence expensive. From Euro 4 onwards NO x values are reduced drastically. Hence, NO x abatement has become a major issue. In the research carried out by authors, alternative coating materials like CeO 2 , ZrO 2 which help NO x abatement and oxygen storage are used over clay marbles. These were designed, fabricated and tested on automobiles. The results are encouraging showing marked fall of pollutants in exhaust gases. KEYWORDS: Diesel Oil, Pollutants, Clay Marbles, Abatement & Oxygen Received: Sep 14, 2018; Accepted: Oct 04, 2018; Published: Nov 26, 2018; Paper Id.: IJMPERDDEC201859 INTRODUCTION The use of catalytic converter came in to existence after 1975, before which an extensive research and studies were made in controlling the pollution emitted by the automobiles. The problem of pollution control was tackled in different levels from 1975 till date. Initially, efforts were made to improve fuel quality. Next step was to improve the engine design. As the Euro norms were stringent by every decade, from Euro I to VI, researchers concentrated on emission reduction using external equipment like a catalytic converter. In the very early stage to control the pollution from the automobiles, a PCV (positive crank ventilation) system was designed, whose function is to collect the unburnt hydrocarbons and burn them, rather than to release into atmosphere. By the year 1984, most of the cars in US were equipped with PCV and became standard Original Article International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD) ISSN(P): 2249-6890; ISSN(E): 2249-8001 Vol. 8, Issue 6, Dec 2018, 555-568 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.