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Three-way catalyst (TWC) converters can purify harmful substances, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons, from the exhaust gases of gasoline engines. However, large amounts of these substances may be emitted before the TWC reaches its light-off temperature during cold starts, and its performance may be impaired by thermal deterioration during high-load driving. In this work, a simulation model was developed using axisuite commercial software by Exothermia S.A to predict the light-off conversion performance of Pd/CeO2-ZrO2-Al2O3 catalysts with different degrees of thermal deterioration. The model considered detailed surface reactions and the main factor of the deterioration mechanism. In the detailed reaction mechanism, adsorption, desorption, and surface reactions of each gas species at active sites of the platinum group metal (PGM) particles were considered based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism.

Three-way catalyst (TWC) converters are used to remove harmful substances (e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and hydrocarbons (HC)) emitted from gasoline engines. However, a large amount of emissions could be emitted before the TWC reaches its light-off temperature during a cold start. For hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) powered by gasoline engines, the emission purification performance by TWC converters unfortunately deteriorates because of mode switching from engine to battery and vice versa, which can repeatedly generate cold start conditions for the TWCs. In this study, aiming to reduce emissions from series HEVs by early activation of TWCs, numerical simulations and experiments are carried out. An HEV is tested on a chassis dynamometer in the Worldwide Light-duty Test Cycle (WLTC) mode. The upstream and downstream gas conditions of the close-coupled catalyst converter are measured.