Rare earths, mixed oxides & aluminas
Rare earths are natural elements present in large quantities in the earth’s crust. After separation to very high purity levels, Rhodia formulates the resulting concentrate into high-technology materials for use in automotive catalysis (emissions control for gasoline and diesel vehicles) or electronic applications (phosphors for low-energy lamps, LCD and plasma flat screens, precision optics, etc.).
Luminostar™’s range is designed for lighting and electronics applications, as new flat screen technologies. Used in long-life trichromatic bulbs and tubes. Rhodia’s phosphor precursors have a major beneficial impact on the environment: they minimize raw material usage and waste volumes and also enable significant energy savings (by a factor of 5 to 10) compared to incandescent lamps.
Eolys™ is used in conjunction with a diesel particulate filter. It is a fuel-borne catalyst enabling a reduction of more than 99 percent in the number of particulates emitted. The third Eolys™ generation provides a maintenance-free system for a service life of 250 000 km. Today 4 million vehicles are equipped with particulate filters using the Eolys™ additive
Rhodia offers leading materials for gasoline catalysis: Actalys®-Optalys® range is present in more than one third of catalytic converters worldwide. Rhodia’s materials reduce usage of precious metals whilst simultaneously improving catalytic converter performance and durability.
Aluminas are a major component in automotive catalytic converters and complement Rhodia's rare earth product range for automotive emission control systems.