A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction.
A catalytic converter turns harmful emissions from the car’s exhaust into less harmful gases before they are pumped out into the atmosphere.
Translations in context of “catalytic converter” in English-Arabic from Reverso Context: Why has adding a catalytic converter been so controversial?
Catalytic converter prototypes were first designed in France at the end of the 19th century, when only a few thousand “oil cars” were on the roads; these prototypes had inert clay-based materials coated with platinum, rhodium, and palladium and sealed into a double metallic cylinder.[6]
A few decades later, a catalytic converter was patented by Eugene Houdry, a French mechanical engineer. Houdry was an expert in catalytic oil refining, having invented the catalytic cracking process that all modern refining is based on today.[7]
Houdry moved to the United States in 1930 to live near the refineries in the Philadelphia area and develop his catalytic refining process.
When the results of early studies of smog in Los Angeles were published, Houdry became concerned about the role of smokestack exhaust and automobile exhaust in air pollution and founded a company called Oxy-Catalyst. Houdry first developed catalytic converters for smokestacks, called “cats” for short, and later developed catalytic converters for warehouse forklifts that used low grade, unleaded gasoline.[8]
In the mid-1950s, he began research to develop catalytic converters for gasoline engines used on cars and was awarded United States Patent 2,742,437 for his work.[9]
