BFXT Rare Earth Technology Group's "cerium-zirconium solid solution project" breaks the foreign monopoly, which is of great significance to the treatment of China's fuel vehicle exhaust and the upgrade of the rare earth industry. At present, the company is stepping up the construction of a cerium-zirconium solid solution production line with an annual output of 500 tons, which is expected to be put into operation in September.
In 2019, the number of cars in my country reached 260 million, a year-on-year increase of 8.83%. Governing the ever-increasing fuel gas vehicle exhaust has become the key to winning the battle of air pollution prevention and control. Teng Wenhui, the manager of the BFXT rare earth maintenance service branch company that undertakes this research and development project, introduced that the production technology of cerium-zirconium solid solution can convert harmful gases in automobile exhaust gas into harmless carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen through chemical reactions, but this technology has long been used abroad Monopoly, three companies in Japan, France and the Netherlands occupy 70% of the international cerium-zirconium solid solution market share, while China's cerium-zirconium solid solution production enterprises are all wholly foreign-owned.
Teng Wenhui said that the key technology lies in the three-way catalytic converter, an external purification device in the automobile exhaust system. The three-way catalyst is a porous ceramic component. The precious metal covered on its surface is the core of chemical reaction, and the cerium-zirconium solid solution is an important material in the metal coating.
In 2019, BFXT Rare Earth and Tianjin University of Technology joined hands to carry out joint research. In that year, after the two parties successfully completed the laboratory small-scale test of 100 grams, BFXT rare earth began to transform the pilot test line. In September, the pilot test line produced cerium-zirconium solid solution products, with a monthly output of 2 tons, and then sent samples to domestic application companies for identification. At the end of October, the appraisal results of user enterprises showed that the specific surface area of products was 5% higher than that of international advanced products. The specific surface area refers to the total area per unit mass of material and is one of the important indicators for evaluating catalysts and adsorbents.
Teng Wenhui told reporters that this technological breakthrough is of great significance. In the BFXT rare earth product series, cerium is one of the main products, and accounts for a relatively large amount. The resource advantages of BFXT rare earth, the price advantage and competitive advantage generated will inevitably have a strong attraction for automotive environmental protection equipment manufacturers.
A number of automobile exhaust gas treatment environmental protection enterprises have reached a cooperation intention with BFXT rare earth.