[Brief translation]
"Thermal energy", which utilizes temperature difference in the ocean and waste heat from such as industries, has attracted attention recently. "Xenesys Inc.", which head office locates in Akashi-shi (Hyogo, Japan), is a world’s leading company in the field of the development and the commercialization of the said "thermal energy" technology.
In what Xenesys Inc. engages is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), which utilizes temperature difference between warm surface seawater and cold deep seawater as its energy source for power generation. By using this method, very little CO2 emission and burden on the environment is expected. Basic principle of OTEC was already invented in 1880s, though, it had been generally accepted that building OTEC as power generation facility was difficult because all the electricity generated by OTEC was consumed as energy source within the facility.
Ph.D. Haruo Uehara, Former President of Saga University and Chairman of the Organization for the Promotion of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (non-profit organization), demolished this theory. He succeeded in developing a highly efficient cycle named "Uehara Cycle" after the research of OTEC for over 30 years. Xenesys Inc. acquired this exclusive execution rights and embarked on the realization of OTEC system.
Xenesys Inc. has also engaged in the development of secondary use of deep ocean seawater (DOW), which is intake water used for the power generation, to produce drinking water by desalinating seawater and create abundant fishing grounds by spreading out the DOW in the surface layer of the ocean, etc..
At the same time, Xenesys Inc. has been developing Discharged Thermal Energy Conversion (DTEC) technology, in which OTEC technology is applied. For power generation and desalination, DTEC employs large amount of waste heat generated in the cooling process at such as power generation plants and refineries. According to Xenesys Inc., DTEC system is likely to be commercialized earlier than OTEC. In reality, projects for power generation and water desalination by utilizing DTEC technology have been in process in Kuwait and Qatar, and the realizations are approaching. While each country in the Middle East profits with a backdrop of oil price soaring, they are suffering from lack of water. Under these circumstances, Xenesys’s technology of DTEC is attracting attention from such countries.
"Interest to thermal power generation has been increasing since 2007 and we will work on the realization of OTEC after building developmental achievements with DTEC," told Dr. Sadayuki JITSUHARA, Senior Managing Director of Xenesys Inc.