The company has already began shipping samples of the new product, with the first units having been delivered this month.
The new alkali-based catalyst accelerates the oxidation of particulate matter and directly decomposes them without using platinum. It offers the same combustion performance as as conventional platinum-based catalyst but works at a reduced temperature (approximately 20 percent lower temperature), thus using a smaller amount of energy for maintaining the optimum temperature for catalytic reactions.
This allows the new catalyst to cut CO2 emissions and save energy. In addition to that, the new catalyst increases the combustion speed if it is used at the same temperature required for conventional platinum-based catalysts.
„Standard diesel exhaust gas treatment equipment consists of a diesel oxidation converter, which removes hydrocarbons (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO), and a catalyst-coated diesel particulate filter, which removes particulate matter. With a conventional catalyst, the DOC itself also requires platinum to produce nitrogen dioxide (NO2), as the conventional catalyst cannot decompose particulate matter without the oxidation action of NO2. However, since the newly developed catalyst can directly decompose particulate matter without using NO2, the amount of platinum used in the DOC can also be significantly reduced, thereby reducing the total cost of the equipment,” stated the press release, explaining the differences between a conventional system and the new one.
In addition to using a new metal compound in the Catalyst, Panasonic has created a new catalyst technology to maximize the performance of the system. The company has developed a new additive to solve the durability issue associated with the use of alkali metal.
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