Mazda Awarded for Research into Combustion of Catalysts in Diesel Particulate Filters

Hiroshima – Mazda Motor Corporation has announced that it will receive the Outstanding Technical Paper Award at the 58th annual Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan awards ceremony in May. Mazda will be honoured for its analysis of the combustion mechanism of catalysts in diesel particulate filters.

Mazda has been conducting research into combustion mechanisms to eliminate particulate matter, mainly soot, from diesel engine exhaust emissions. The Hiroshima-based company developed an original analytical method, which demonstrated that the oxygen exchange characteristics of catalysts play an important role in accelerating the combustion of particulate matter.

This work will aid development of highly-efficient diesel particulate filters (DPF) in the future. Additionally, the newly-developed analytical method can be applied not only to automobile diesel engines, but also to general-purpose diesel engines. The award recognizes these achievements, which provide tangible development guidelines for a wide range of future diesel engine technologies.

Diesel engines are popular mainly in Europe because they have better fuel economy than gasoline engines and produce fewer CO2 emissions, which are commonly regarded as a major cause of global warming. However, a treatment process (combustion) is necessary to remove the particulate matter (soot) that is produced in the exhaust. To promote combustion of the particulate matter, the exhaust gases must be heated sufficiently. This requires extra fuel and is one of the causes of impaired fuel economy.

Mazda will leverage its new analytical method to find ways of accelerating particulate matter combustion in order to significantly reduce exhaust processing times. By developing this technology, Mazda intends to cut fuel consumption and achieve cleaner exhaust emissions with less CO2.

The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan has conducted an awards program since 1951 as a means of encouraging the advancement of automotive engineering and technologies.