What comes out of a car’s exhaust pipe?
Car exhaust is also called vehicle emissions. It contains many substances. Some are catalytic converter more harmful than others.
Your car’s engine probably uses gasoline as fuel. Gasoline is a hydrocarbon. Your car mixes this fuel with air before burning it.
This process is called combustion, and it produces many chemical by-products.
Some of these by-products are perfectly safe. For example, air consists of 78% nitrogen gas (N2). Some of this nitrogen reacts with oxygen during combustion
. However, most of it gets released as N2 in the engine’s exhaust. Engine exhaust also includes water (H2O). You’ll often see water dripping from exhaust pipes during the winter.
Car engines also emit a lot of harmful substances. Some of these can cause acidprecipitation. This is the case with carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides.
Other vehicle emissions can cause health problems like cardiovascular disease cancer and cancer This is the case with unburnt hydrocarbons, particulates (carbon particles), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Car engines also release. This poisonous gas can replace oxygen in your bloodstream. If you breathe enough of it, it can even suffocate you!
That all sounds very dangerous, doesn’t it? Fortunately, catalytic converters help make engine emissions less harmful. Here’s how.
What is a catalytic converter?
The catalytic converter was invented around 1950 by engene houdry. He was a French mechanical engineer. He dWidespread use of catalytic converters began around 1975. At that time, governments started trying to reduce air pollution from cars. But back then, a lot of vehicles used leaded gasoline. Lead (Pb) can keep a catalytic converter from functioning properly. That’s because lead can coat the surface that normally reacts with the exhaust gases. esigned the catalytic converter to clean up automobile exhaust.