Umicore has opened a new production plant for emission control catalysts in Nowa Ruda, Poland, in response to the growing demand for automotive catalysts in Europe. The facility will help the company meet tightening emission legislation in the European Union and support Europe's aim for cleaner air. Umicore's catalysts transform harmful vehicle emissions into harmless ones, improving air quality. The company has been researching and producing automotive catalysts for over 40 years and its technology has prevented hundreds of million tonnes of harmful pollutants from being emitted into the air.
Supporting Europe’s aim “Cleaner air for all”
The materials technology and recycling group Umicore today officially opened its new production plant for emission control catalysts in Nowa Ruda, Poland (near Wrocław). The facility allows the company to meet the growing demand for automotive catalysts from its customers in Europe, a trend that is supported by tightening emission legislation in the European Union.
With this addition to its European footprint, Umicore complements its existing automotive catalysts production facilities in Germany, France and Sweden. The plant, which is located in the special economic zone of Wałbrzych, employs around 80 people and works with the newest generation of process technologies.
Pascal Reymondet, Executive Vice President Catalysis at Umicore, comments: “This investment enables us to supply our customers with technologies to meet the most stringent emission legislation and support Europe’s aim for ‘cleaner air for all’. It also underscores our ambition to be a clear leader in materials for clean mobility.”
Umicore’s catalysts enable improvements to air quality by transforming harmful vehicle emissions through sophisticated catalytic processes. Umicore has been researching in the automotive catalysts sector for over half a century and producing them for over 40 years. Since then its technology has prevented hundreds of million tonnes of harmful pollutants from being emitted into the air.
Combustion engines intrinsically produce toxic emissions. National and regional authorities impose limits on these emissions in order to improve air quality. Vehicle producers typically comply with these limits by installing a catalyst in the exhaust system of the vehicle. This transforms toxic emissions into harmless ones. The vast majority of passenger cars produced today have such a catalyst system on board and this is more and more the case for heavy duty vehicles as well.