Platinum Metals Review - Volume 38, Issue 1, 1994

With new automobile emission standards going into effect in Europe, and even tougher standards ready for implementation in California and the rest of the United Stares, automotive emission control systems are required to perform even better, in the ongoing effort to reduce vehicle emissions. Catalyst manufacturers, in collaboration with vehicle producers, have spent several years on the research, design, development and testing of catalytic systems to meet the emission standards through to the end of this decade. This paper highlights key technical developments taking place in emission control catalyst technology.

The first European Congress on Catalysis (EUROPACAT I), which was held at the CORUM Conference Centre in Montpellier, France, from the 12th to the 17th September, 1993 coincided with the formation of the European Federation of Catalysis Societies (EFCATS). The Congress and the setting up of the Federation marked the culmination of three years intensive planning by representatives of almost every European country where catalysis is practised and studied, including those of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The discovery of platina towards the middle of the eighteenth century in alluvial gravels worked for gold in the Spanish South American viceroyalty of New Granada, and the interest which this new metal aroused among European scientists as its presence became known, eventually induced the authorities to recognise the situation and then to take action to control it by means of a royal monopoly. Here, in the first of this two-part paper, governmental action is related to European discoveries up until the time when the usefulness of platina was firmly established.