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Light Duty Vehicles (LDVs), typically with engine displacement volume of less than 1.5L are an integral part of the India’s automobile sector as they are one of the most preferred means of transportation in rural as well as urban India. This market has always been on the rise as a result of rising population, growing commercialization, increasing commercial activities, etc. which are all contributing to the increased demand for intra city transportation. The passenger LDVs such as the three wheeler segment dominates the market as the need for affordable passenger commutation is higher than the need for goods carriage within a city. With BS VI norms slated to be implemented in 2020, it becomes imperative to understand, plan and work out strategies to meet these norms effectively on the Indian roads & actual Indian driving behavior, especially for these LDVs.

From the recent past, automotive exhaust emission management strategies has been progressing towards an alternative for vanadia based selective catalytic reduction (V-SCR) of NOx in diesel powered vehicles. Some of the major inadequacies of existing V-SCR technology were as follows: poor thermal endurance (deteriorates at 550°-600°C), volatilization of harmful vanadium into environment and inadequate NO2 conversion. Metal incorporated zeolite systems, (the metals being preferably selected from transition metal elements), has gained momentum for commercial DeNOx applications. However, the major challenge with this zeolite SCR (Z-SCR) was its low thermal/hydrothermal stability. In the current study, it has been attempted to overcome this by various zeolites and metals combinations. Various combinations of metallic Z-SCR were extensively studied for their low and high temperature activities.