What is Converters: Definition and 40 Discussions

A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that reduces toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Catalytic converters are usually used with internal combustion engines fueled by gasoline or diesel, including lean-burn engines, and sometimes on kerosene heaters and stoves.
The first widespread introduction of catalytic converters was in the United States automobile market. To comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's stricter regulation of exhaust emissions, most gasoline-powered vehicles starting with the 1975 model year are equipped with catalytic converters. These "two-way" converters combine oxygen with carbon monoxide (CO) and unburned hydrocarbons (CnHn) to produce carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). In 1981, two-way catalytic converters were rendered obsolete by "three-way" converters that also reduce oxides of nitrogen (NO x ); however, two-way converters are still used for lean-burn engines. This is because three-way-converters require either rich or stoichiometric combustion to successfully reduce NO x .
Although catalytic converters are most commonly applied to exhaust systems in automobiles, they are also used on electrical generators, forklifts, mining equipment, trucks, buses, locomotives, motorcycles, and on ships. They are even used on some wood stoves to control emissions. This is usually in response to government regulation, either through direct environmental regulation or through health and safety regulations.

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  1. JimTheHVACGuy

    DC Inverters and Rectifiers: Understanding the Terminology

    I'm no Electrical Engineer. But I do have a lot of questions pertaining to Electrical theory. One topic as of late that has the cogs in my brain turning, are Converters. For instance, I work on Comfort Cooling and Heating Systems for a living, as of the last 3-4 years DC Inverter Heat Pumps...
  2. C

    How Can I Refresh My Knowledge of Physics?

    Hi, I love physics since school, but after years I forgot a lot of what I studied. I hope this forum will help refresh my memory. Also I built a web converter application to convert different measurement units and this forum can be really helpful for me to promote it and keep improving it. Thanks
  3. sodoyle

    Can I series buck converters to get higher stepdown ratio?

    I have two capacitors in series across my bus. I have a some series resistors across the capacitors for voltage balancing. I would like to power some low voltage low voltage components tapping off of the voltage divider using that as the voltage supply. The bus voltage will be approximately 2...
  4. M

    Help finding some html to pdf converters please

    Hello, I am looking for some softwares that can convert htlm files into pdf and join them. I know Adobe Reader can do this and there are online converters but I am looking for alternatives of Adobe and offline options. Can you please recommend one if you know any? Thank you.
  5. og_ogun_srvs

    Current or Power Reference Tracking with Power Electronics Converters

    Hi. This is my first post. Thanks to all who give it a look. I am working on an application that has very stringent power output requirements. There is a rechargeable battery that I am trying to manage through a bi-directional boost/buck converter as is typical of many modern-day electric...
  6. dvscrobe

    Buck Converters in DCM in Steady State

    Let K=2Lfs and Pin=Pout, Have, (Vin-Vo)/k D^2 Vin =Vo ^2/R (I am fine up to this part. I am equating input power to output power) V^2=D^2 + D^2 R/2 Vo Vin - R/k D ^2 Vin =0 (This is where the instructor takes over. Can’t figure out how he got to V^2. Where did that come from? Thought I was...
  7. H

    Electrical What are good quality step-up converters out there?

    Hi! I was wondering if you can suggest any decent DC-DC step-up converter that would actually withstand 100W output? My intention is to convert 12V to 23-24V and feed it to 100W consumer. I got myself 150W step-up module that according to specs should withstand 150W or 6 Amp at output (when you...
  8. T

    Connecting DC Boost Converters in Series

    Hi, I have a graduate level understanding of power electronics. The other day I decided I wanted to series the output of two DC Boost converters. I remembered the simple conceptual circuit of how they worked, and I jumped onto google to see if this could be done safely. What I read was that it...
  9. Wrichik Basu

    Queries related to buck converters

    In a circuit that I am building, I have a rectified DC of about 22V, and I want to regulate this down to say, around 8V to 10V. Previously, I thought of using a voltage regulator, LM7808, as discussed here, but I strongly believe that a potential drop of 22V - 10V = 12V would produce a lot of...
  10. F

    Current to Voltage and Voltage to Current Converters

    Hello Everyone, I am still trying to get my head around what a current to voltage converter (and vice versa) is. There is a section on my book, in the chapter about op amps, that discusses this topic. Apparently, a current signal is less susceptible to noise than a voltage signal... But what...
  11. JTC

    Gyroscopic Water Wave Energy Converters

    Say I have a disk spinning in a buoy. Let me say the spin axis is vertical to the flat surface of the buoy (or sea if there were no waves). Now along comes a wave (that will induce a "precession" of the disk/buoy. The axis of this precession is from "starboard to port." This would induce...
  12. S

    Why is chaos more studied in dc-dc converters compared to other circuits?

    Why is chaos only more studied in dc-dc converters and not in other nonlinear circuits, such as, rectifiers?
  13. S

    Baseband Signal Processing and Digital to Analog Converters

    Hi Guys, I have a question on the need for Digital to analog converters in Transmitters. To elaborate bit further: 1) Because of the advantages of the Digital signals, most go the signal processing in wireless communications is performed in baseband. But my question is: Since digital...
  14. Captain1024

    SEPIC Converter Analysis: CCM Operation with VL1, VL2, IC1, and IC2 Expressions

    Homework Statement Find expressions for VL1, VL2, IC1, IC2 for each of the two intervals of a SEPIC converter under CCM operation. link: http://i.imgur.com/EY98QbC.png Homework EquationsThe Attempt at a Solution link: http://i.imgur.com/SskXRoC.jpg?1
  15. Captain1024

    Efficiency of Buck-Boost Converter

    Homework Statement Consider a Buck-Boost converter. If in addition to the transistor on resistance (R_{ON}), the converter diode has a voltage drop (V_{D_0}), symbolically derive an expression for the efficiency, η of the converter, where η = 100* PO/PIN. Verify that that when R_{ON} and...
  16. S

    Protection on Step up and Step Down Converter Module Bucks

    In a circuit that I'm building, I have a power source of 5 volts DC that powers various components. A few of them are LED lights and light bulbs. -Background Info- In circuit 1, I have a step up buck "2A DC-DC boost step-up Conversion module MicroUSB 2-24V 3V to 5v-28V 12v 9v 24v"...
  17. P

    Can I Use Parallel Buck Converters to Achieve Higher Amperage?

    I have a ton of 1A buck converters, and have a 5A application in which i need to run. I do not want to order any new buck converters, because I already have so many 1A ones, and do not have money for any new ones. Each one can only handle 1A before it over heats. I was wondering if I could use...
  18. PhiowPhi

    DC-DC Converters & KCL: Understanding Current and Power in Motor Models

    I'm confused, how is it that DC-converters work with respect to KCL in terms of conservation of charge? When a boost/buck converter would output low/high current output than input? I_in =/ I_out I'm teaching myself the basics of circuits, understood KCL and KVL, but this point is confusing...
  19. berkeman

    PFC Offline Converters -- SEPIC, Cuk, Boundary Conduction Mode Flybacks

    I'm upgrading a non-PFC (power factor corrected) offline power supply design to include PFC for European deployment. The total output power is less than 25W, and the two output windings are around 20V. I'm familiar with boost-flyback topologies for isolated PFC supplies, but that seems to...
  20. ranju

    Error Analysis of Op-Amp Output with Tolerances on Inputs and Resistors

    Homework Statement The input bits 0 and 1 are represented by 0 volts and 5 volts respectively. The OP-AMP is ideal, but all the resistances and the 5 volts inputs have a tolerance o f ± 10%. The specification (rounded to the nearest multiple of 5%) for the tolerance of the DAC is?? In this...
  21. 2

    DC-AC converters, Solar inverters

    (I am a big newbie when it comes to electrical circuits) So I am searching the Internet for how the Solar inverters work. Most schemes that I come across have an H-bridge with some sort of transistors. Now how I understand the transistors are controlled by an oscillator and bridge itself then...
  22. F

    About Parallel-to-serial converters

    Hello everyone, i am a beginner in electrical engineering , and i am studying introduction to logic circuits.And I'd like you talk to me applications of parallel-to-serial converters especially the Parallel-to-serial converters of 4 bits. Since now,thank you.
  23. Runei

    Filters and DC/DC Converters in parallel

    Hello there people. Hopefully someone will have a bit of insight into how a possible solution to my problem could look. Im designing a power distribution unit for a piece of equipment, and there has to be galvanic isolation between the primary power input and the loads. I have a DC/DC...
  24. T

    Phase converters and their three-phase voltages/currens

    Let’s assume I use an ideal rotary phase converter to power a three-phase 10HP motor (100% efficient, PF = 1). Thus, I need S = 10 VA. On a 120V single-phase line, I would get three-phase line-line voltages of 240V. Here’s my question. I was under the assumption that when you analyze motors...
  25. S

    Current regulation for buck converters?

    Hi everyone, First post on this forum (!) I am simulating a distributed power generation system for which I need a current regulation on a buck converter (for load sharing between sources)...The model will be turned into a hardware solution so I need a practical solution, preferably...
  26. E

    12V / 6A Power supply. Help with Buck and Boost converters + OR'ing circuit

    Hello all. Maybe someone here can give me suggestion of ICs and make considerations about this design. The attached picture states how this power supply should work. Details: 1) IC 1 probably will be a LT3650-8.4 from Linear Technology. It supports up to 32V of input voltage (40V peak)...
  27. B

    Question about coaxial digital to analog converters

    Is there a coaxial digital to analog converter that only decodes the digital signal into multiple signals for the channels and then converts the digital signals into analog signals but does not serve as a digital tuner? Because most coaxial digital to analog converters do not decode the...
  28. D

    Calculating VDS(off) for Electronic Converters

    Hello I'm trying to calculate VDS(off) for the buck, boost and inverting converter. All I have is Vin, Vout and duty cycle. Am I correct in thinking VDS(off) is the voltage across the FET? I have no idea how to calculate this. Thanks in advance.
  29. J

    Catalytic Converters - Three Questions

    I have three questions I can't find an answer for online about catalytic converters: 1. How does rhodium remove nitrogen from nitrogen oxides? 2. Why do catalytic converters need to be hot to operate at full efficiency? 3. Why are platinum and rhodium used? What properties do catalytic...
  30. R

    POL converters or DC-DC converters

    Hi, I understand the basic thing about DC-DC to converter but doubtful on POL converter. What exactly mean by point of load converter. Can anyone explain me clear and short in good way.
  31. M

    Courses Upper-level course decision: Solar converters vs. space physics

    I am a 4th year Phy UG on a 5 yr plan and need some advice, these two courses overlap so I can't take both. I am interested in both topics but have more background in astrophysics, not much in the engineering area. I guess my indecision stems from a larger crisis I am having in trying to...
  32. P

    Inductorless DC-DC converters for space application

    I am designing a small satellite which uses a magnetometer and some coils (which interact with Earth's magnetic field) to provide attitude control. The strength of the geomagnetic field is 30 uT to 60 uT (according to Wolfram Alpha), and the magnetometer has a resolution of 0.015 uT. The...
  33. B

    LaTeX Find TEX/LaTEX Converters to Convert to Word

    Where can I find TEX or LaTEX converters (from TEX language to a Word file)?
  34. C

    Free Video Converter: MPG to 3GP/MP4

    Does anyone know of any decent, free video converter, mpg to 3gp/mp4 ?
  35. R

    Free Unit Conversion Tool - Includes Magnetism & Electrical Units

    hi! Does anybody know of any free downloadable unit converters that includes magnetism unit and other electrical unit conversions too? THANKS
  36. V

    Solve Urgent: HELPP A/D Converters - Succesive Approx

    Urgent! HELPP! A/D converters - succesive approx. An input analog signal has a 4.78 V instantaneous magnitude, held by an S/H circuit, which is applied to a 6 bit succesive approximation ADC with range : 000000 output for 0 V input 111111 output for 12 V input Follow the succesive...
  37. X

    Buck Converters: Why NFETs and not Diodes

    Hi, I am going through Franco's "Design with Operation Amplifiers and Analog Integrated Circuits" (an undergraduate textbook) and I am on the chapter about regulators and my question is specifically about the buck kind of switching regualtors. As I understand the basic operation of a...
  38. russ_watters

    Phase Converters: Rotary vs. Rectifier/Inverter

    We have a residential client who is building a 7,000 sq ft vacation home in Cape May, NJ (right across the street from mine :cool: ) that we are going to air condition with fan coil units. That means an 18 ton chiller, and 18 ton chillers don't come in single phase. There are smaller chillers...
  39. mattmns

    Music file type converters for linux

    What is a good, free of course, program that will convert music. I want one that will convert into mp3 format, or any format that has good quality and is small in size, and will play in xmms. (xmms has been down all day so I have no clue what formats are supported). I use linux btw. Thanks.
  40. M

    Online Converters: m3 to L, Rainfall Area in m2

    Hi Guys, I checked so many online converters but could not find out how much m3 1 liter is. And also how large an area in m2 is when 1liter of water rains down and leaves a puddle 1mm high. yes, i know it's basic stuff, but it's unfortunately so basic that my formula book doesn't mention...
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