Renewable Energy Development Efforts in IHI Corporation

抄録

The introduction of renewable energy in Japan is accelerating. In the report of the Long-term Prospect of Energy Demand and Supply (July 2015), the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has made up, the desired percentage of renewable energy against total power supply is estimated as 22 to 24%, approximately double the 2013 performance figure of 10.7%. IHI Corporation is one of the Heavy Industry companies in Japan and is actively engaged in research and development relating to various kinds of renewable energy. Some of the activities that we are currently working on will be presented. Ocean current turbine power generation systems aim to extract the energy from the Japanese ocean current known as 'Kuroshio', a stable current located in the North Pacific region. The Twin IHI Gasifier (TIGAR[○!R]) is a circulating fluidized bed-type gasifier that can be operated under lower temperature and pressure conditions than other gasifiers. Biomass resources can be gasified by TIGAR[○!R] and used as the fuel for cogeneration systems and as the resource for hydrogen production systems. The power generation systems which use Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology can recover energy from the low temperature heat source of industrial waste and also renewable energy such as geothermal, solar and biomass. 100 kW class ORC power generation systems operating at temperatures between 80 and 125℃ have been developed and tested using waste heat sources from diesel engines. Furthermore, IHI is also working on the development of biofuels using algae with the goal of practical use in the near future.