JFE Engineering Corp. of Japan announced on July 5, 2007 that it has confirmed the favorable energy efficiency and emission reduction performance of its newly developed air conditioning system, which uses hydrate slurry as its thermal storage medium. Hydrate slurry is a fluid mixture of fine hydrate particles in an aqueous solution, which is created by cooling a tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) solution. The company developed this unique system in cooperation with the national New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

The hydrate slurry air conditioning system was installed in the company's Tsurumi Engineering and Manufacturing Center in Yokohama, which was completed in May 2005. From June to November in that year, the new air conditioning system achieved a 32 percent reduction in energy consumption for cooling and a 37 percent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to the company's report. The system achieved similar reductions both in energy consumption and CO2 emissions (33 percent and 38 percent respectively) in fiscal 2006 as well, demonstrating stable and high-performance operation. The new system, now in its third year, continues to work well.

In the temperature-change range suitable for air-conditioning (five to eight degrees Celsius), hydrate slurry has a two to three times higher cooling capacity than water, conventionally used for air-conditioning. In addition, it can flow directly through pipes and heat exchangers. These properties allow the new system to efficiently store thermal energy at lower cost at night, to use smaller diameter pipes, and to reduce pumping power consumption.

http://www.jfe-steel.co.jp/en/research/report/003/pdf/003-02.pdf
http://www.nedo.go.jp/english/archives/180824/180824.html
- Hydrate Slurry and Drag Reduction Technology Cut Power Consumption for Air Conditioning (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1495-e

Posted: 2007/12/04 05:07:53 PM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Global warming , Government , Manufacturing industry , Technology , University/Research institute