Natural Gas Technologies and Markets: Japanese Experience
Natural Gas Technologies and Markets: Japanese Experience
Natural Gas Technologies and Markets: Japanese Experience
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For Presentation at APEC Clean Fossil Energy Technical <strong>and</strong> Policy SeminarFriday, 28 January 2005, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Cebu, Philippinesin the future in the unregulated energy market.4.2. Examples of Recent Residential <strong>Natural</strong> <strong>Gas</strong> <strong>Technologies</strong>4.2.1. Eco Jouzu“Eco Jouzu” is a product name for recent instantaneous hot water heater units.Unit capacity is either 35kW or 42kW <strong>and</strong> one unit can supply hot water for thekitchen, bath, <strong>and</strong> floor heating of a house. With latent heat recovery its heatefficiency can be as high as 95%.4.2.2. PEFC (Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell)Four kinds of fuel cells have been proposed <strong>and</strong> developed. PEFC is a fuel cellthat uses proton exchange membrane as the electrolyte <strong>and</strong> operates at relativelylow temperature. (Room temperature to up to 90 deg. C) Its generation efficiencycan be from 30% to 35%. Relatively low operating temperature allows quick start<strong>and</strong> heat recovery by hot water, which makes PEFC suitable for residential use.Tokyo <strong>Gas</strong> has cooperated with Matsushita Electric <strong>and</strong> Ebara Ballardrespectively to develop first commercial PEFC units. They are 1kW capacity <strong>and</strong>equipped with 200 litter hot water tank. Electricity generation efficiency is 31%.Normally it is operated in DSS (daily start <strong>and</strong> stop) mode.It is supposed to reduce primary energy consumption by 26% <strong>and</strong> CO 2 emissionby 40% compared to a conventional combination of grid electricity <strong>and</strong> a hot waterheater.Tokyo <strong>Gas</strong> will introduce PEFC to the market in early February 2005. Only a fewhundred units will be installed at this stage <strong>and</strong> large scale marketing of improvedunits will start 2008.5. Conclusion<strong>Natural</strong> gas has been positioned as an important energy from the viewpoint ofsecuring stable energy supply <strong>and</strong> maintaining global environment in Japan <strong>and</strong> isexpected to increase its share in the Japan’s primary energy supply towards 2030.Share of natural gas will increase both in electricity generation <strong>and</strong> heat application.Since the introduction of LNG to Japan in 1969, <strong>Japanese</strong> city gas utilities have beeninstrumental in exp<strong>and</strong>ing dem<strong>and</strong> for natural gas through the introduction of highlyefficient, environmentally friendly technologies to Japan’s industrial, commercial <strong>and</strong>residential markets. They are further extending their effort by capturing electricitydem<strong>and</strong> in residential market by introducing PEFC.Page 5 of 5
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