October 13, 2014

Fukuoka, Japan, a hydrogen town

Savings ourselves from fuel shortage

Rizal Philippines  |   October 13, 2014






Hydrogen town


The last post at this site was last December 2013 and has not updated the posts.

This afternoon there was a feature at News Asia regarding energy situation in Japan.  Japan is one of the leading consumer of energy in the world... The fossil fuel supply is likely to be gone in 60 years.  That is quite near.

So Japan is banking on renewables.   The requirement for renewables is even more pressing after the greatest nuclear accident in Fukushima after the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.  The perils from a meltdown  outweighs the benefits.

Th two options are:








1.  wind energy.  The important contribution for this by Japan is the use of wind turbine lenses that enable the manufacturers to build wind turbine at 2/3 the usual size requirement.  The lens create a low pressure area behind the turbine which sucks air and thus the power of the turbine doubles, become more efficient and less noisy (some say that the noise of a wind turbine is equivalent to a jumbo jet taking off hence the complaint of many residents near wind mills)

2.  hydrogen power.

     One such project/experiment is the Fukouka Hydrogen Town  This covers 150 houses and involves the use of hydrogen cogeneration fuel cells used in conjunction with LPG.  This is sponsored by Nippon Oil.  These are  1 KW project that also supplies the heating requirement of homes.  There are safety concerns though since hydrogen is fed through high pressure hoses/pipes