Kawasaki Receives ASME IGTI Best Paper Award for Industrial Gas Turbine Academic Paper on its M5A

August 7, 2020 Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. has received the Best Paper Award for its academic paper, presented at ASME Turbo Expo 2019 organized by the International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Its title is “Development of High Efficiency 5MW Class Gas Turbine the Kawasaki M5A” and the award ceremony will be held in Pittsburgh, US, in June 2021.

The award-winning paper covers the development of the M5A, a domestically produced gas turbine launched in November 2017, which boasts the world’s highest power generating efficiency in the 5 MW class. The paper focuses on the development process, detailing its technological features and the results of many tests. Kawasaki provides background information on how the M5A represents the culmination of the company’s technological innovations, which is based on their experience building over 11,000 industrial gas turbines for the global market. 

Due to their high efficiency and environmental performance, interest in cogeneration systems using industrial gas turbines has increased. The M5A belongs to the 5 MW class which is in high demand both domestically and internationally. The engine offers a 32.6% generating efficiency, the world’s highest among 5MW models, and the GPB50D cogeneration system using the M5A enables an 84.5% combined energy efficiency — the highest in its class. In terms of environmental performance, use of the latest dry low emission (DLE) technology allows the cogeneration system to achieve lower than 15 ppm (converted at O2=15%) nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, contributing to lowering environmental impact. 

Since its launch, orders for the M5A have been increasing steadily domestically and internationally. Besides this honor, this product has received high recognition from government related institutions, the industrial sector, and academia. Based on its developmental and technological capabilities reaffirmed by this award, Kawasaki intends to further bolster its energy-related businesses in the global market using its sales bases in Japan, Europe, and Asia.

* ASME Turbo Expo: One of the largest international conferences on turbomachinery, sponsored by the ASME and supported by mechanical engineering societies in the United States, Europe, and Asia. This conference is the most influential event of the industry for setting ASME standards and design standards for the world’s turbomachinery.

[Related press release]
Kawasaki Commences Sales of the M5A Gas Turbine Boasting World-leading Efficiency in the 5 MW Class
https://global.kawasaki.com/en/corp/newsroom/news/detail/?f=20170731_8351

[Product information: Cogeneration Systems]
http://global.kawasaki.com/en/energy/equipment/gas_turbines/cogeneration.html