Mazda wins award for diesel research

Mazda Motor Corporation has announced that it will receive the ‘Outstanding Technical Paper Award 2008’ at the prestigious 58th Annual Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan (SAEJ) awards ceremony to be held in May.

Mazda will be honoured for its in-depth 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. The 2008 SAEJ award will be Mazda’s fourth honour from the society in recent years.

Mazda’s research 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 recognises these achievements, which provide tangible development guidelines for a wide range of future diesel engine technologies.

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 the fuel consumption of future models and achieve cleaner exhaust emissions, together with reduced CO2 output.

The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan has conducted its Annual Awards programme since 1951 as a means of encouraging the advancement of automotive engineering and associated technologies. Its ‘Outstanding Technical Paper Award’ recognises the contribution made by companies, individuals and their collaborators for outstanding research in the field of automotive technology.

About the ‘2008 Outstanding Technical Paper Award’
Awarded for the “Study on Low Temperature Oxidation of Diesel Particulate Matters by Oxygen Storage Component for the Catalyzed Diesel Particulate Filter”.

Recipient
Kenji Suzuki, Technical Research Centre, Mazda Motor Corporation.

Collaborators
Kouichiro Harada, Hiroshi Yamada, Kenji Okamo and Akihide Takami all based at
the Technical Research Centre, Mazda Motor Corporation.

The Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan confers awards in six different categories each spring. This year’s awards ceremony will be held during the society’s spring conference at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Centre on 22 May 2008.