• IHI Corporation

Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) mediate the exchange of information between vehicles, roads, and people in order to prevent car accidents, avoid traffic jams, and address environmental problems and other challenges. After repeated demonstration experiments in Japan and Singapore, practical application of IHI's 3D laser radar for preventing accidents at intersections is close at hand.

• IHI Corporation

Global warming has reached the point where there's no time to waste in taking preventive measures. Ocean storage of CO2 is one of several atmospheric greenhouse gas reduction measures. In this paper, we describe the useful results of our study on leakage monitoring, which is essential for practical use of this measure.

• IHI Corporation

Concern is growing over the harmful effect on marine mammals of heavy impact sounds from airguns used in exploration for offshore resources. IHI has therefore mobilized its methodically cultivated technologies to produce a gentler sound for animals — offering a new solution.

• IHI Corporation

It is extremely important to evacuate to higher ground, a tsunami evacuation tower, or something in five minutes or less in order to avoid being the victim of a tsunami after a massive earthquake. However, what action should be taken in regions where there is no higher ground or evacuation facility or in facilities occupied by many elderly and other persons who are vulnerable in an emergency evacuation. One of the solutions to this problem is a tsunami lifeboat to be used to “escape by going with the flow.” In this paper, we describe a new boat model, which is an enhancement of the original boat developed in 2013.

• IHI Corporation

In recent years, as offshore resources, not only fishery resources, including oil, natural gas, rare metals, and other minerals attract increasing attention, national surveys have been underway in the vast seas that surround Japan. IHI applied own robot technologies to take another step forward in achieving autonomous unmanned maritime systems for conducting detailed surveys at a water depth of 1 000 m or more.

• IHI STAR Machinery Corporation

The explosion in the population growth of the world has led to reports of a food crisis. On the other hand, the agricultural population in Japan, which was over 15 million after the war, has fallen to about 2 million today, with an average age of over 66. IHI will contribute to solving these issues by using the IHI Integrated Environmental Cultivation Control System for Protected Horticulture to stably produce safe and secure agricultural products.

• UCHIDA Hiroyuki

• SAKAI Shin-ichi, ISHII Kousuke, FUKUCHI Yasuhiko, FUJITA Yutaka, TANIGUCHI Hideki

It is expected that the invention of iPS cells will lead to the realization of regenerative medicine. Because iPS cells are cultivated by hand, there are problems involving mistakes, contamination and the inability to culture the cells on a large scale. IHI is developing an iPS cell automated mass-cultivation instrument to solve this problem by applying large-scale culture and automation technologies. We have developed a novel bioreactor for large-scale suspension culture and a test instrument including the bioreactor. In this paper, we introduce these efforts.

• SATO Hiroshi, AKIKUBO Kazuma

Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies have received considerable attention because of their potential application in preventing global warming by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases, in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is regarded to be the main player. The storage of CCS must guarantee safety to the environment. In light of this, the technique for detecting CO2, which exists in underwater environments, is one of the key component technologies for the practical application of carbon storage. In order to continuously monitor underwater CO2 in ocean storage areas, indirect detection techniques — such as pH measurement — have been proposed. For practical application, however, a direct detection technique is required to ensure a more precise and sensitive method of monitoring underwater CO2. In this study, electrochemical detection of CO2 in a saline solution was performed using an amino group immobilized Au electrode. The oxidation and reduction currents related to the redox active compounds varied depending on the CO2 concentration, suggesting that it is possible to directly detect aqueous CO2.

• RAI Yasuhiro, SHIBATA Naruyasu, WADA Daisuke, MIYOSHI Kazuo, AKIYOSHI Ryo

The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is a thermodynamic cycle in which a low-boiling-point fluid is used to generate power from low-grade waste heat in factories, engine systems and geothermal plants. IHI has developed the “Heat Innovator,” a 100-kW class ORC power generation system that consists of an ORC module, a boiler for recovering heat from the exhaust gas of an engine, heat input and rejection cycles, and an overall control system. A test has been conducted for over a year and the results have shown that the stable and automatic operation of the “Heat Innovator” is possible. Also the cost of the maintenance of this system is reduced considerably by the use of magnetic bearings in the turbo-generator, which leads to the system being free of wear, reduces mechanical loss, and avoids the risk of the refrigerant being contaminated by lubricant. This article describes the system integration and some of the test results obtained through using this 100-kW class ORC in an engine power plant.

• KUBUSHIRO Keiji, NOMURA Kyohei, MATSUOKA Takaaki, NAKAGAWA Hirokatsu,MUROKI Katsuyuki

For the purpose of putting 700°C Advanced-Ultra Super Critical (A-USC) power generation technology into practical use, IHI developed fundamental technologies for boilers from 2008 to 2013. In particular, IHI examined the welding technology and bending technology of Ni-based alloy piping of the candidate materials. In the end, IHI established welding methods for every candidate material, even though the welding conditions are different for each material. Regarding bending technologies including cold bending, IHI also established the optimal machining conditions. Based on these conditions, IHI manufactured mockups of header pipes and loop pipes and verified that construction of an actual machine was possible. 100 000 h creep rupture tests are being conducted on welded parts to verify their long-term durability at high temperatures.

• TAMAKI Hideaki, OOUCHIDA Satoshi, UNNO Masaru, TANAKA Ryuuta, YAMAGUCHI Satoshi

The operational points of a turbocharger compressor have a strong tendency to approach its surge conditions (stability limit) during an engine's acceleration period, particularly under low engine-speed conditions. Hence there are expectations for a method for shifting the stability limit on a compressor low-speed line toward a lower flow rate. Inlet recirculation is often observed in a centrifugal compressor with a vaneless diffuser near a surge and under low compressor-speed conditions. The reverse flow caused by the inlet recirculation grows in a compressor-inlet pipe in the upstream direction. Firstly, this paper discusses the effect of inlet recirculation on compressor characteristics by considering a 1-D model and the potential that the growth of inlet recirculation has shown for destabilizing compressor operations. Secondly, the flow in a compressor-inlet pipe of a turbocharger was shown using visualization techniques, namely, oil flow and PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry), confirming the existence of inlet recirculation in the tested compressor. Furthermore, the effect of small fins mounted in a compressor-inlet pipe on inlet recirculation and compressor characteristics under low-speed conditions was investigated. Small fins are called inlet fins in this paper. According to test results, inlet fins showed great promise in shifting the compressor stability limit toward a low flow rate during inlet recirculation.