Murata Manufacturing's Heat-Resistant Ceramic Catalysts Significantly Reduce Fuel Use: Taking on the Challenge of Reducing Scope 1 Emissions (Part 1)

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from a company's own business activities (Scope 1) is an important and urgent issue for the manufacturing industry. Aiming for carbon neutrality, Murata has realized significant reductions in the fuel used in exhaust gas treatment in factories, a feat that was previously difficult to achieve, with our world-first heat-resistant ceramic catalyst technology that applies our electronic component development technology.

On this occasion, we spoke with Mr. Yasuda from the Ceramic Capacitor Business Unit and Mr. Sato from the Corporate Technology & Business Development Unit about taking on this challenge, which has also realized economic benefits such as a fuel reduction rate of 60% or more.

Here, Mr. Sato of the Corporate Technology & Business Development Unit describes the issues involved in developing heat-resistant ceramic catalysts and the background to these development efforts.

Sato: "In the manufacturing industry, factory exhaust gases sometimes contain harmful substances called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Restrictions on these VOCs are being tightened around the world because of concerns about air pollution and health hazards.
Accordingly, high-temperature treatment devices called regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTOs)^*1 are used to neutralize VOCs. However, this treatment requires maintaining a high temperature of about 850℃, which consumes a vast amount of fuel. In other words, while it is possible to remove VOCs with high-temperature treatment, it also brings issues such as an increase in GHG emissions and fuel costs. The key to commercializing heat-resistant ceramic catalysts was addressing the challenges of both complying with VOC regulations and reducing GHGs.
Moreover, the background to commercialization lies in the fact that some of the materials used in the field of electronic component application were also being researched in the field of catalyst application. Murata was able to take on the challenge in the new field of catalysts by using the materials technology passed down within our company."

• *1

  Regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO): This is a treatment device that burns the harmful substances in exhaust gases, including VOCs, at high temperatures to neutralize them.

Yasuda: "Murata has long engaged in various efforts to reduce GHG emissions with a focus on the environmental and energy sectors. I myself have been responsible for business development as a leader in the catalyst business for about 10 years in these sectors. Initially, we were a team of three people. However, when we used our heat-resistant ceramic catalysts in our factories in 2021, we were able to demonstrate a reduction effect that far exceeded our expectations. Since then, we have grown into a team with about 30 members and have been working on commercialization with a sense of speed."

Heat-resistant ceramic catalysts are a technology that aims to maintain performance even in high-temperature environments through a structure and material design that differ from conventional catalysts. Achieving this involves overcoming development difficulties and using ingenuity.

Sato: "Conventional catalysts typically have a structure in which nanoparticles of platinum and other precious metals are placed on the surface of a base material. However, when heat is applied, these nanoparticles migrate due to the heat and thus the surface area decreases due to agglomeration. This led to the issue of a decline in reactivity. Murata designs catalysts as a composite material mixed with the base material at the atomic level, rather than placing nanoparticles on the base material.
Traditionally, Murata's material design for electronic components has involved controlling the electrical properties by substituting the elements in the crystal structure. Applying this technology and substituting the active elements in the crystal structure of the base material has allowed us to be able to maintain their properties as catalysts, even when high heat is applied. We believe that this precious metal-free design also eliminates the risk of price fluctuations and as a consequence, offers the benefit of stable procurement costs.
A point that has been difficult in the development process up to now has been the matching of a technology with its application. We were able to successfully utilize our technology precisely because it is an exhaust gas treatment system that operates at high temperatures like an RTO. However, this technology cannot be applied to all catalytic reactions. I think we were able to arrive at this result only because we repeatedly developed materials and explored applications with the cooperation of our customers, university professors, and various other stakeholders based on the target of reducing GHGs."

Yasuda: "In fact, we tested the catalyst in small treatment devices during the initial development. This was a small in-house trial of a size in which about one or two honeycomb-shaped catalysts fitted into a single unit. However, we thought that as we were making the effort to conduct a trial, it would be better to use a larger treatment device. That led us to RTOs that use several hundred to 2,000 honeycombs per unit.
RTOs themselves have been adopted in many factories as relatively energy-efficient devices. Even so, annual fuel costs range from several million to tens of millions of yen. There are also more than a few factories that emit several hundreds of tons of greenhouse gases per year from their own operations.
Therefore, we have received a lot of feedback from customers saying that they would like to try utilizing heat-resistant ceramic catalysts if doing so makes it possible to reduce fuel use and GHG emissions. In particular, we have received inquiries from those who would like to utilize these catalysts at high temperatures and those who want to utilize them in overseas factories in addition to those in Japan."

We will hear about demonstration data from Japan and China, as well as aspirations for the future, in Part 2.

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Murata Manufacturing's Heat-Resistant Ceramic Catalysts Significantly Reduce Fuel Use: Taking on the Challenge of Reducing Scope 1 Emissions (Part 2)