The generation of structural defects in metal oxide catalysts offers a potential pathway to improve performance. Herein, we investigated the effect of thermal hydrogenation and low-temperature plasma treatments on mixed SiO2/TiO2 materials. Hydrogenation at 500 °C resulted in the reduction of the material to produce Ti3+ in the bulk TiO2. In contrast, low temperature plasma treatment for 10 or 20 min generated surface Ti3+ species via the removal of oxygen on both the neat and hydrogenated material. Assessing the photocatalytic activity of the materials demonstrated a 40–130% increase in the rate of formic acid oxidation after plasma treatment. A strong relationship between the Ti3+ content and catalyst activity was established, although a change in the Si–Ti interaction after plasma treating of the neat SiO2/TiO2 material was found to limit performance, and suggests that performance is not determined solely by the presence of Ti3+.

Increasing responsibility toward the environment forced the transportation sector to shift its gear toward the electric vehicle. While battery electric vehicle (BEV) have started enjoying success, it poses a question as to whether or not fuel cell vehicle (FCV) becomes redundant even before being widely deployed. The commercialization of FCV usually only comes after a long period after the prototype was introduced, signifying certain barriers to large-scale utilization. Aside from the various LCAs, studies have also tried to estimate the future cost and model FCV adoption. Due to the limited data and different regional conditions in which the project was done, these researches used vastly different scenarios and assumptions, making the result differ significantly. The lack of a clear-cut answer might indicate that the fate of FCV is not yet decided, and the PEMFC might still play a part in the green transportation era, albeit not as the dominant technology. Alternative uses and the condition required to utilize them were discussed in this short review

CO oxidation in the catalytic converter hasn’t showed best performance particularly during cold start-up, since the catalyst is not active during this period. The purpose of this experiment was to develop the forced unsteady state operation procedure of CO oxidation using 0.05%-w Pt/γ-Al2O3 and space velocity of 0.406 mmol/s/gram. The catalytic converter was gradually ramped-up, while introducing the feed gas containing CO in the air. The feed gas was modulated following a square wave model with switching time variation at 3, 6, 15, and 30 s and various operation modes. To gain the intrinsic reaction rate, the external mass transfer criterion was determined. Ramping-up the temperature from 50 until 150°C increased the CO conversion with different profiles between steady state and dynamic flow rate. The dynamic system with modulated CO feed flow gave lower light-off temperature and higher average CO conversion than the steady state system which gave light off temperature 115°C and average CO conversion of 48.86%. The switching time of 3 s gave highest average CO conversion during ramping-up, which was 79.35%. Meanwhile the dynamic operation system with modulated feed flow gave higher lightoff temperature and lower average CO conversion than steady state system.