Company Profile

Business Description

Catalytic Solutions, Inc. is a global manufacturer and distributor of emissions control systems and products, focused in the heavy-duty diesel (HDD) and light-duty vehicle (LDV) markets. Utilizing the Company’s patented Mixed Phase Catalyst (MPC®) technology, Catalytic Solutions' emissions control systems and products are designed to deliver high value to our customers while benefiting the global environment through air quality improvement, sustainability and energy efficiency.

The Company was founded in 1996 and has grown from a provider of unique catalysts to the automotive industry (gasoline and diesel engines) to a provider of both catalysts and systems in growing clean technology markets.

Catalytic Solutions' Clean Tech Businesses Include:

• HDD Systems (Engine Control Systems), a leading environmental business specializing in the design and manufacture of verified exhaust emissions control solutions. Globally, the HDD Systems business offers a full range of products for the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), aftermarket and retrofit markets in order to reduce exhaust emissions created by on-road, off-road and stationary diesel, gasoline and alternative fuel engines including propane and natural gas.

• LDV/HDD Catalysts, the business behind Catalytic Solutions’ proprietary MPC® technology enabling the Company to produce catalyst formulations for gasoline, diesel and natural gas induced emissions that offer superior performance, proven durability and cost effectiveness for multiple markets and a wide range of applications. A family of unique high-performance catalysts has been developed — with base-metals or low platinum group metal (PGM) and zero-PGM content — to provide increased catalytic function and value for technology-driven automotive industry customers.

Catalytic Solutions, Inc. currently has operations in the USA, Canada, France, Japan and Sweden as well as an Asian joint venture.

Opportunity

Emission control catalysts eliminate dangerous engine pollutants from a range of fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas and alternative fuels. 

Catalytic Solutions’ patented MPC® technology was developed in response to the need for a more cost-effective solution for automotive catalytic converters as emission standards around the world continue to tighten. Traditional automotive catalytic coating technologies currently utilize high loadings of PGMs - platinum, palladium and rhodium - to satisfy performance requirements mandated by governmental regulations, resulting in high costs to the automotive OEMs. Therefore, there is a significant market opportunity for a catalytic coatings supplier that can provide catalytic performance comparable to that of traditional products with substantially lower PGM loadings. The Company’s MPC® technology offers performance equal to or exceeding that of competing catalytic coatings with a significant reduction in PGM loadings. In addition, increasingly stringent emission standards for diesel engines and gas turbines are also driving demand for superior catalytic solutions in the diesel and energy markets.

Our HDD systems business greatly expands the ability of the Company to utilize its catalyst technology to provide customers with high value-added, cost-effective and efficient emission control systems.  We are a truly vertically integrated provider of emission control systems and our customers will benefit from purchasing systems where the embedded catalyst technology is optimized for system performance.

Target Markets

Automotive
Since 2000, 100% of new cars sold in the U.S. and approximately 85% of all new cars sold worldwide have been equipped with a catalytic converter as the principal means of meeting emissions standards. The regulations controlling auto emissions in countries throughout the world have become increasingly restrictive and will continue to tighten in the future.

Automotive catalytic converters depend on large quantities of PGMs to perform the catalysis. These metals are rare and very expensive, and are the largest cost component of a catalytic converter. Current catalytic technology requires a substantial increase in the loadings of these costly PGMs in order to meet forthcoming emissions standards. As a result, automotive emissions control systems are expensive and becoming more so, and the auto industry has been under intense pressure to find a cost-effective emissions control solution. In addition, automobile manufacturers in Europe and other markets are looking for greatly improved performance at a fixed moderate PGM level.

Diesel
U.S. and European legislation requires significant reduction in particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from off-road diesel vehicles to be phased in through 2015, including reductions in PM which began in 2009. Catalysts using traditional technology will require high loadings of PGMs to comply with these standards, and diesel engine manufacturers are very concerned about the high price of these units. Additionally, OEMs complying with existing on road legislations will be looking for more cost-effective suppliers for existing technology applications as well as potential expansion into urea-based selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technologies.

Competitive Advantages

The Company believes that its technology and products represent a fundamentally different emissions control solution, which delivers the following key benefits:

Superior Catalytic Performance
The Company’s MPC® technology enables it to produce catalytic coatings capable of significantly better catalytic performance than previously available. Catalytic Solutions has achieved this demonstrated performance advantage by creating a catalyst using unique nanostructures with superior stability under prolonged exposure to high temperatures. This nanostructure technology enables the oxide catalysts in the Company’s compounds to resist sintering, or fusing, thereby maintaining a high catalytic surface area. As a result, in automotive applications, for example, the Company’s catalyst formulations are able to maintain high levels of performance over time using substantially lower PGMs than products available previously.

Significant Cost Advantage
In the automotive market in particular, where PGM costs represent a large portion of manufacturers' costs, a significant benefit of the Company’s MPC® technology is that it offers performance equal to or exceeding that of competing catalytic coatings with a 50% - 80% reduction in PGM loadings.

Wide Range of Applications
Our MPC® technology is a design approach, as opposed to a single chemical formulation. We have developed our technology from its inception as a platform, which can be tailored for a range of different industrial applications. Specifically, our coating formulations can be tailored in two distinct ways. First, the oxide compounds used in our formulations can be adapted for specific applications by adding to them, or doping them with, a wide range of chemical elements, a process known as tuning. By contrast, the catalyst offerings of our competitors can be tuned only by adjusting the three PGMs. Second, we are able to vary the mixtures of our compounds to create customized solutions for specific applications. These two independent design mechanisms allow for customization and optimization for different vehicle platforms within the auto industry, complex heavy-duty diesel equipment for the OEM, aftermarket and retrofit markets, and for completely different applications in the energy sector, such as SCR NOx control for industrial and utility boilers, process heaters, gas turbines and gensets. We offer a full range of EPA and CARB verified HDD emission control products.

Proven Durability
Our products and systems have undergone substantial lab and field testing by our existing and prospective customers and have demonstrated their durability and reliability in a wide range of applications. In addition, our products and systems have satisfied numerous certifications and match or exceed the durability of conventional coated substrates.

Compatibility with Existing Manufacturing Infrastructure and Operating Specifications
Catalytic converters using our coated substrates are compatible with existing automotive manufacturing processes as well as specific vehicle operating specifications. There is no need for our customers to change their manufacturing operations, or how their products or processes operate, in order to utilize our technology. Our HDD emission control products and solutions are engineered to our customers’ specific application and designed to deliver custom and industry-leading solutions that meet or exceed environmental mandates.