Garrett Hill

IRVA 2018 – Cracking the Code on Plasma Emissions Control

Conventional methods of reducing emissions from internal combustion engines, such catalytic conversion and particulate filtration, require high temperatures and often unrealistic operating demands to be effective. These systems have a short operating life, and are costly to replace and maintain. Furthermore, they are reaching or have reached the end of their ability to meet global emissions mandates. Leading laboratories have recognized the potential of utilizing plasma (charged particles within a luminous gas) to reform unwanted emissions into neutral constituents, and thereby reduce pollution. However, several decades of attempts to develop a practical solution have failed for a variety of reasons: plasma instability, large power requirements, lack of robust reactor architectures, and the generation of unwanted chemical byproducts.

ThrivalTech, a plasma research and development company, has developed a practical method of utilizing plasma to oxidize emissions within the internal combustion engine. By applying electrodynamic principles modeled upon the geometries of nature, ThrivalTech has coherently directed plasma to decompose toxic pollution in situ, at low temperatures and low cost, without generating harmful chemical byproducts. Tests of initial prototypes have demonstrated a 25% simultaneous reduction in Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Monoxide during a diesel cold-start, a 98% reduction of Nitrogen Oxides on a propane engine, and the ability to oxidize soot at temperatures as low as 120 °C in a diesel particulate filter. All of which are impossible with conventional methods.