NEURAL-NETWORK-AIDED DESIGN OF AUTOMOBILE EXHAUST CATALYSTS

Abstract

A priori design of catalysts is not yet possible. Such task would demand unavailable scientific knowledge of the correlations among synthesis parameters and resulting solid state and surface structures, on the one hand, and among those atomic-level structural details and their catalytic functions, on the other hand. To avoid testing every possible combination, therefore, the applied chemist or chemical engineer must identify empirical correlations underlying the existing experimental data base. The ability of artificial neural networks to identify complex correlations and to predict the result of experiments has recently generated considerable interest in various areas of science and engineering. In this paper, neural networks are used to identify composition-performance relationships in automobile exhaust catalysts. This work employs an artificial neural network technique to do a sensitivity analysis of the conversions of pollutant gases as a function of the catalyst composition and the operating conditions. This approach converges on the optimum catalyst composition and operating condition in order to produce specified conversions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, to carbon dioxide, water and di-nitrogen respectively.