Volume 2 Issue 7, July 2019

For the foreseeable future, we will continue to rely on the internal combustion engine for mobility of people and goods. The ubiquitous three-way catalyst does not work below 350 °C, with appreciable O₂, nor does it control soot. Low temperature catalysis, chemical trapping and filtration will grow in need, and represent research opportunities.

PGM-free catalysts for oxygen reduction represent a long-term, high-risk research and development approach with high potential impact on the single greatest cost contributor to automotive fuel cell stacks.

The global energy and transportation landscapes are changing rapidly, and that brings with it evolving opportunities and catalyst research needs for hydrogen and fuel cells.

Catalysis is essential in the automotive and transportation sectors to target the United Nations sustainable development goals for climate change and the environment. To comply with both the ambitious United Nations goals and step-by-step stringent emission regulations, innovative and economically viable catalytic systems will be a key element in meeting these challenges.

Solid oxide fuel cells have been identified as a promising technology to decarbonize the transportation sector. This perspective describes recent advances in the area and identifies those crucial aspects that still require development in order to favour the practical application of this technology.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells can efficiently provide clean power for electric vehicles, although more efficient and economic cathode catalysts are still required. This Review highlights recent breakthroughs, challenges and future research directions for Pt group metal (PGM) and PGM-free oxygen reduction catalysts.

CO oxidation is an important reaction in automotive catalysis which has been extensively studied since the 1970s. In this Review, Higashi and Beniya examine the development of state-of-the-art catalysts, in particular focusing on CO oxidation pathways for single-atom and few-atom cluster catalysis.

Catalysis has been crucial for the transportation sector, as it has enabled the treatment of automotive exhausts over the years in agreement with evolving environmental regulations. This review details the most important milestones in automotive catalysis, while looking at the future of the field.

Improving the performance of commercial three-way catalysts like rhodium on alumina is a major challenge considering the limited design space allowed for such systems. Now, solution atomic layer deposition is used to incorporate titania or zirconia promoters into this catalyst, leading to remarkable improvements in its overall performance.

The Fischer–Tropsch reaction is one of the key means of producing synthetic fuels. Here a deposition method to disperse cobalt nanoparticles across an alpha alumina support is shown to produce a highly stable system capable of withstanding demanding conditions while providing excellent activity.

The production of high-value fuels from bio-derived methanol requires improvement to become economically viable. Here, process advancements for the production of high-octane gasoline are reported, and the effects that these have on making the process competitive with market rates of fossil fuels are analysed.