Impact of catalysis on clean energy in road transportation

The fastest growing sector for the utilization of energy is that of transportation, the bulk of this being road vehicles. From an environmental and resource viewpoint, the major issues are how to cleanly and efficiently use energy for road vehicles. Over the last 20 years, major savings in emissions from cars have been achieved by the use of automotive catalysts. However, localized pollution (in major population centers) continues to be an issue, as does the need for improved fuel efficiency (to reduce CO2 emissions and conserve energy resources). These are the main drivers for the development of advanced fuel cell technology, which, in turn, relies upon compact and efficient onboard fuel processing to enable a commercially viable use of the technology in cars. Current trends indicate that these new technologies will reach the market in the next decade. Success in all three clean-energy technologies, catalytic convertors, PEM fuel cells, and onboard fuel processors, has been and continues to be dependent on advances in catalysis.