Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTi), a leader in advanced emission control technology, announces new proprietary technology to replace costly use of platinum group and rare earth metals in catalytic converters. CDTi has been granted the first two of a family of patents for Spinel, a proprietary clean emissions exhaust technology that will dramatically reduce the cost of attaining more stringent clean air standards.
The new technology will power multiple catalytic product lines that the company believes will be highly disruptive to the traditional platinum-based or rare-earth based device industry. This is CDTi's first public announcement regarding Spinel technology, the development of which has been kept confidential until now.
About Spinel
- A family of proprietary materials using various base metals that replace costly platinum group metals (PGMs) and rare earth metals in coatings on standard catalytic converters
- Works across a wide range of engine and vehicle applications - both diesel and gasoline
- Advanced testing underway on production models of popular passenger cars and heavy-duty vehicles at respected independent vehicle test facilities
Spinel Significance and Benefits
- Potentially saves OEMs billions of dollars by cutting out expensive platinum group metals and rare earth metals
- Currently OEMs spend over $6 billion a year on PGMs (source: Derived from Johnson Matthey PLC: Platinum 2013 Interim Review)
- Enables early cost-effective compliance with stricter emissions standards in the U.S. and around the world
- Mitigates OEM exposure to extreme price volatility in the PGM and rare earth markets
CEO Chris Harris comments, "Currently, global OEMs annually spend billions of dollars on PGMs and rare earth metals. These costs are expected to dramatically increase with conventional technology as new emissions regulations kick in. Spinel solves a major industry supply and cost problem and marks a major breakthrough both for us and for all OEMs around the world manufacturing fossil fuel-powered engines."
CTO Dr. Stephen Golden adds, "The Spinel technology is the result of hard work and ingenuity by our world-class R&D team. It is an entirely new materials science pathway to meeting tighter regulations at much lower cost. Key validation vehicle testing is underway in parallel to aggressively building a broad IP portfolio as we incorporateSpinel into specific products for global OEMs."
