Patent ID: 7074370

Claim:
A reactor for the plasma assisted processing of internal combustion engine exhaust gases for simultaneous removal of unwanted carbonaceous combustion products and nitrogen oxides, the reactor including a reactor chamber adapted to be connected into the exhaust system of an internal combustion engine and including at least one gas permeable body of active material, means for exciting a non-thermal plasma in the exhaust gases and means for constraining the excited exhaust gases to flow through the body of active material, wherein the active material comprises at least primarily in combination a perovskite selected from the group consisting of perovskite materials having the general formula A 1âˆ’x A 1 x B 1âˆ’y B 1 y O 3 wherein A,A 1 are selected from the group consisting of La, Sr, K, Li, Na, Cs, Pb and Ba, B,B 1 are selected from the group consisting of Ni, Cr, Co, Mn, Ti, Zr, Cu and V, x is a number from 0 to 1 and v is a number from 0 to 1, and a vanadate selected from the group consisting of vanadate materials having the general formula M 4 V 2 O 7 or M 4âˆ’4x M 1 4x V 2 O 7 wherein M and M 1 are selected from the group consisting of K, Cs and Rb and x is a number from 0 to 1 and MVO 3 or M 1âˆ’x M 1 x VO 3 wherein M and M 1 are K, Cs, Rb, and Cu and x is a number from 0 to 1 for effecting simultaneous oxidation of carbonaceous combustion products and catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxides present in the exhaust gases.