Current research

Comprehensive-energy-circulation technology aims to build a sustainable and highly efficient energy cycle by adding a new process, "absorbing," to the conventional processes of "generating," "transmitting," "storing," and "utilizing" energy. In this sense, "absorbing" refers to actively recovering and converting waste heat, which is conventionally dissipated into the environment and thus unused, and circulating it as useful energy.

To build this new energy cycle, it is essential to develop a mechanism that efficiently absorbs waste heat in temperature ranges that have not been fully utilized and reuse it as electricity or "cold energy" (i.e., thermal energy at temperatures lower than ambient temperature). This initiative goes beyond mere "energy saving." That is, by reframing waste heat as a new resource, we aim to fundamentally improve the energy flow of society as a whole.

We are positioning low-temperature waste heat, which is abundant but largely unutilized, and high-temperature waste heat, which has high energy density and excellent conversion efficiency, as two key pillars of our research and development. Regarding low-temperature waste heat, focusing on waste heat generated from information infrastructure such as data centers, we are researching and developing technologies that efficiently transmit heat (while suppressing energy input) to generate cooling energy. In this way, energy savings will become possible even in the case of cooling systems that consume vast amounts of electricity. As for high-temperature waste heat, we are advancing research and development of technologies that use optical methods and thermoelectric conversion elements for highly efficient reuse of waste heat for directly converting waste heat emitted from factories and other sources into electricity. These initiatives will dramatically increase on-site energy efficiency and directly contribute to reduction of CO₂ emissions.

Unused thermal energy is said to account for approximately 60-70% of the primary energy consumed in Japan ^[1]. This vast potential energy resource exists not only in data centers and factories but also in various other locations. By gradually expanding the scope of application of the technologies developed through our research and development, we will contribute to the social implementation of a new energy cycle

[1] NEDO: Heat utilization that has come this far: The 3Rs of heat to open up a decarbonized society (Japanese)