Disponible en CD en formato PDF

Transcripción del abstract original del autor: The effective use of energy and the reduction of CO2 emissions are important recent issues. Cogeneration systems using natural-gas engines are highly efficient and are a great alternative for saving energy. Consequently, these systems are attracting attention as small distributed-energy systems with the potential to satisfy the demand for power. Currently, the efficiency of electric-power generation by medium- class gas engines, the output power of which is 1,000 kW or less, is between 30% and 38%. Osaka Gas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry jointly developed a medium-class high-efficiency engine in order to develop medium-class engines. In the newly developed engine, the Miller cycle was incorporated into a lean-burning engine for the first time. The new engine achieved the world’s highest electric- power-generation efficiency ever obtained by a medium-size machine through the introduction of this technology. It was 40%. We introduced six of these new engines, the outputs of which ranged from 280 kW to 845 kW in 2001. The first cogeneration system began commercial service in October 2001 and it has been operating smoothly. We report herein the technology used to develop highly efficient engines, characteristics of the cogeneration systems, and their operating performance in the field.