IIT Jodhpur students develop method to reduce vehicular pollution using Rajasthani clay

A catalytic converter is a device which is fitted to a vehicle's exhaust to reduce the pollutants coming from it. A team from IIT-Jodhpur created it using clay. The clay acts as an oxygen reservoir and makes the pollutants less harmful, the researcher said.

By: PTI

Jodhpur | Updated: November 25, 2019 09:10 PM IST

2 min read

Team of researchers is from department of Chemistry, IIT-Madras, (Representational image)

A team from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur’s chemistry department has developed a catalytic converter for cars using Rajasthani clay which will be cheaper and more effective in reducing pollution, a professor claimed on Monday.

A catalytic converter is a device which is fitted to a vehicle’s exhaust to reduce the pollutants coming from it.

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Rakesh K Sharma, an IIT Jodhpur professor who led the team, said the catalytic converter was developed by extracting Iron-Nickel-Cobalt nanoparticles from Rajasthani clay.

The clay acts as an oxygen reservoir and makes the pollutants less harmful, he said.

“The catalytic converters in use have expensive rare earth elements — Palladium and Cerium — in them and their life span is about 10 years against an approximate 15-year life of a four wheeler,” Sharma said.

“We had three challenges — a reduction of temperature, replacement of Palladium and Cerium and redesigning the convertor”, the professor said, adding that Rajasthani clay turned out to be a perfect solution.

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