Kawasaki Green Gas Engine Tops World Record with 48.5% Generating Efficiency

Jul. 19, 2007

Kawasaki Green Gas Engine Tops World Record with 48.5% Generating Efficiency

   Tokyo, July 19, 2007 – Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has developed the world’s most efficient 7.8 MW, 18-cylinder gas engine. The engine not only achieved 48.5% electric generation efficiency but demonstrated excellent environmental performance with extremely low NOx emissions of 160 ppm at 0% O2 during test runs in combination with a power generator that began in May.

 Since Kawasaki released its first marine diesel engine in 1919, it has continued to actively develop, design and manufacture an array of diesel engines as well as power generation systems. Kawasaki leveraged its expertise and experience to launch a gas engine development project and established the basic technologies to develop the 18-cylinder demonstration engine through performance tests on a single-cylinder test engine.

 The engine features an optimized combustion chamber form and individual control of each cylinder to improve anti-knocking performance and cycle efficiency. The addition of a prechamber spark ignition system does away with the need for additional liquid fuel for ignition and realizes easy operations. Kawasaki’s fluid dynamics technology was employed in developing the prechamber to ensure stable combustion.

 The engine is applicable to a wide range of markets, with models offering outputs from 5 to 7.8 MW. It is available in four different combinations, including 12, 14, 16 or 18 cylinders, with a cylinder diameter of 300 mm.

 Kawasaki has a proven track record in the area of industrial gas turbines, supplying stand-by power generation and cogeneration systems since 1974. Kawasaki employs state-of-the-art low emission technologies to offer an extensive line of gas turbines from 150 kW to 20 MW class turbines with the L20A at the top end. Kawasaki has added these highly efficient gas engines to its product lineup to meet a diverse range of customer needs. Kawasaki’s gas turbines are dubbed Green Gas Turbines because of their superior environmental performance. The newly developed gas engine has also been named the Green Gas Engine to widely communicate its world record-breaking environmental performance.