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Mitsubishi
Kakoki Kaisha, a pioneer of hydrogen generation in
Japan, has succeeded in developing new high-efficiency
hydrogen generation equipment with remarkably improved
reliability. The equipment, named HyGeia, is capable
of generating pure hydrogen (99.999% purity) at the
rate of 50 cubic meters per hour, while consuming
20% less natural gas, which is the hydrogen feedstock.
It is also more compact, requiring half of the installation
space required by the company's previous models. Its
operation is completely automated.
The
new equipment is expected to be installed at hydrogen-filling
stations for fuel cell vehicles, whose demand is on
the rise, and to be used for manufacture of semiconductors
and silica glass, or heat processing of metals, replacing
compressed hydrogen.
HyGeia was viewed
with keen interest at the 1st International Hydrogen
& Fuel Cell Expo, an international exhibition
and conference featuring all kinds of technology,
equipment and products related to fuel cells and hydrogen,
held in January 2005 in Japan. The company plans to
expand the HyGeia product range in terms of generation
capacity and fuel sources.
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The world's first residential fuel
cell cogeneration system to be powered by liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) was launched on the market March
1, 2005 in Tokyo as an energy-efficient and environment-friendly
alternative to conventional home energy sources.
It is called a cogeneration system because it generates
electricity while, at the same time, producing and
storing hot water from waste heat given off by the
generation—deriving a double benefit from
each calorie of energy consumed. The system can
provide enough power and hot water to cover most
of the electricity and/or hot water requirements
of an ordinary household, including floor heating
and washing.
By
installing the system, a household user can not
only achieve higher energy efficiency, but also
contribute to reduced CO2 emissions brought
about through fuel cell technology. Nippon Oil began
renting the "ENEOS Eco LP-1" amid growing
concerns about global warming. The company aims
to fill an expected rise in demand for environment-friendly
devices such as this system.
Because it is self-contained, including
the fuel source, later versions of the system may
also have an emergency backup feature for times
when the electricity supply is cut off by earthquakes
or typhoons.
Trial operation at monitor households
began in February 2003, to develop the experience
and operational data leading to commercialization
under joint development with Sanyo Electronics.
In the first year of the launch, Nippon Oil plans
to rent the new LPG-based cogeneration system to
household users in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures.
The following year, the company plans to rent the
system nationwide.
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Last
autumn the world's largest amorphous-type solar
power generator (total power output approximately
1,000 kW) began generating power in Buttenwiesen,
Germany, a suburb of Munich. The system is equipped
with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' solar cells. The
power generator was built by Phonix SonnenStrom
AG, a company with a wealth of experience in solar
power equipment construction. All of the power generated
at the facility will be distributed to outlying
communities through local power companies.
The power plant covers an area of 16,500
m2, nearly the size of two and a half
soccer fields, and utilizes 10,000 amorphous solar
panels. It will produce 1,000 MWh per year, which
is enough to supply 320 households with power. The
amount of CO2 emission reduction resulting
from the installation will be 1,000 metric tons
of carbon annuallyathe equivalent of as much CO2
as a forest of 2.4 km2 would absorb in
a year. |
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In response to its own commitment
to horizontal self-recycling of its household appliance
products (i.e. recycling of materials from old appliances
into new appliances), Mitsubishi Electric has developed
an original mixed-plastic separation and recovery
technology.
In the past, it has been difficult to
recycle plastic from scrapped appliances, but the
new technology makes it possible to automatically
extract relatively pure propylene from recovered
mixed-plastic material and recycle it into new appliances.
Mitsubishi Electric's recycling facilities
have achieved a 73% average rate of recovery and
recycling in 2003 for four types of appliances in
Jaspan. Generally, recycling of metals and glass
is progressing well, but recycling of plastics is
still problematic because of grading and separation
challenges.
In 1999, Mitsubishi Electric completed
the industry's first appliance recycling plant.
From the beginning, efforts were made to recycle
plastics, and to this end, the original pulverizing
technology was capable of creating rough plastic
that could be recycled in certain products for which
downgraded plastic was sufficient. Downgraded plastic,
which is a mixture of more than one type of plastic,
was not suitable for home appliances, however, and
the next aim was to obtain a more refined recycled
plastic that could be used in home appliance production.
The technology developed to achieve
that goal extracts propylene, which is commonly
used in appliances, from the plastic mixture. It
does so automatically and to a high degree of purity,
resulting in material that meets the standards for
application in home appliances.
Mitsubishi Electric will focus next
on developing technology to automatically extract
relatively pure polystyrene and ABS (acrylonitrile
butadiene styrene), with the aim of eventually achieving
100% recycling of plastic material. |
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