No. 211: Mass production of heat-resistance materials for aerospace (December 14, 2010)

Ube Industries will build up the production system of fibers for the next-generation aircraft engines. The company will start mass production of heat-resistant materials for aerospace by 2016 and put the composite material made of fiber and resin being developed jointly with Boeing into practical use. Ube’s heat-resistant materials are excellent in functionality and used in the planetary exploration spacecraft “Hayabusa (Falcon)” launched by Japan Space Exploration Agency. Heat control polyimide film used in “Hayabusa (Falcon)” is excellent in heat resistance and hard to deteriorate against radiation and ultraviolet. It will be used in BepiColombo that is the exploration spacecraft for Mercury to be launched in the partnership between Europe and Japan. Materials for aerospace have to clear very high requirements both in heat resistance and weight saving, and Japanese companies are very active in new product development and increasing use. Toray is schedule to ship carbon fibers to Airbus starting 2011. Teijin will supply carbon fibers to the next small passenger aircraft of Bombardier of Canada for 10 years. Osaka Titanium Technologies will increase production of sponge titanium by 20%.

No. 210: Technology to reuse effluent from the toner plant (December 10, 2010)

Ricoh developed the technology to purify effluent from the production process of toners for printers and complex machines. The newly-developed technology dissolves harmful organic substances using ozonic ultramicro bubbles. The company developed the technology in alliance with National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and REO Research Institute in Miyagi Prefecture. The technology utilizes the characteristic of an ultramicro bubble less than 50 micrometers in diameter that dissolves organic substances around it when it contacts to less than 100 nanometers and gets dissolved in water. Equipment that generates ozone with decomposition energy from the atmosphere to produce ultramicro bubbles will be built in the effluent treatment process. So far it is hard to dissolve and treat effluent generated in the toner plant using microorganisms, and organic substances are incinerated after being concentrated. The newly-developed technology changes organic substances into water and carbon dioxide, and separates them out into water as fine particles. Generated fine articles are harmless and can be used as cement materials. The newly-developed technology will make it possible to reuse permanently water used in the toner plant except the volume that decreases due to natural evaporation.

No. 209: Technology for high accuracy analysis of sugarcane gene (December 9, 2010)

Toyota Motors developed the technology for high accuracy analysis of sugarcane gene in collaboration with National Agricultural Research Center for Kyushu and Okinawa Region affiliated with National Agriculture and Food Research Organization. The technology will be useful for shorter period for breed improvement and helpful for the spread of bio fuels. It enabled the research team to draw a gene map, which shows the positional relationship of DNA sequences, five times more in detail than the existing technology. With this technology, it will be possible to locate important genes helpful for improved productivity and strengthened disease resistance of sugarcane and halve the period for breed improvement. Because sugarcane has much DNA volume, the existing technology does not allow breed improvement based on the analysis of gene information. If the newly-developed technology allows for stable and increased production of sugarcane, it will give momentum to the spread of bio fuels that do not emit carbon dioxide. Toyoda Motors has already developed the technology to enable its gasoline vehicles built after June 2006 to run fuel that contains 10% bioethanol in volume. The company plans to disclose the technology after obtaining the patent to prepare for the growing demand for biofuels worldwide.

No. 208: Transform information to energy (December 8, 2010)

Eiro Muneyuki, a professor of Chuo University, and Masaki Sano, a professor of Tokyo University succeeded in the experiment to show that information can be transformed to energy for the first time in the world. They did the experiment in the situation where two-packed plastic particles, each of which is 300 nanometers in diameter, roll freely because of the Brownian motion caused by the surrounding heat, and made the mechanism that the energy situation of the particles goes up and down the stair by applying alternative voltage from outside. They observed the moves of the particles using a high-speed camera and successfully made the energy climb the energy stair by changing the electric field instantly depending on the information obtained from the observation. The conversion efficiency that can be obtained by dividing obtained energy by the energy equivalent to the acquired amount of information was 30% at a maximum. The energy can be applied to the control of the micro machine that operates inside the body. The research results seemingly contradict the “second law of thermodynamics,” but they confirmed that no contradiction would occur should energy necessary for information processing be taken into consideration. British science magazine Nature Physics placed the research results in the December issue.

No. 207: Use vegetative materials for lithium-ion battery (December 6, 2010)

Sony used vegetative materials for the major components of lithium-ion battery and successfully built a trial product. The company used strained lees of corns and coffee beans, wood for the interior of the container, and biodegradable plastic for exterior of the container. The trial lithium-ion battery has a capacity of 8 mAh. By connecting two units of the trial product, the company operated a mobile music player without LCD screen for one hour. Because the trial product remains usable after it was discharged and charged for 10 times, it is suitable for the remote controller of an electric home appliance. The company used lithium rhodizonate made of corn’s sugar in place of cobalt for the positive electrode, materials created by burning strained lees of coffee beans for the negative electrode, and film made of wood’s cellulose for the separator. The trial product is a thin square battery. Sony plans to increase the capacity of the newly-developed lithium-ion battery by more than 100 times and increase the frequency of discharge and charge to 100 times. It needs lots of experiments to increase its reliability because vegetative materials are heat-sensitive and easily dissoluble. Sony wishes to commercialize the trail product toward 2030.

No. 206: Wheelchair vehicle from Japan (December 4, 2010)

A company that designs cars and motorcycles has been developing a wheelchair vehicle for the past one year in cooperation with rehabilitation centers. The company is YDS in Kanagawa Prefecture. The newly-developed wheelchair vehicle is scheduled to be put on the market next spring. It is an electric three-wheeler designed for wheelchair users. You can ride on this wheelchair vehicle with your wheelchair and enjoy wind while you are riding it. The wheelchair vehicle can make a maximum speed of 40 km per hour. It mounts two lithium-ion batteries that you can recharge using home electric outlet. Four hours’ recharging allows the wheelchair vehicle to run for about 50 km. You can ride it on by lifting the lever to fix your wheelchair. You can get on easily without assistance. You need a driver’s license to ride it. The price is scheduled to be between 500,000 and 600,000 yen a unit.

No. 205: Low temperature carbonization plant from Toshiba (December 2, 2010)

Toshiba participates in the sewage and sludge treatment business with its newly-developed low temperature carbonization plant. The new plant can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 80% as compared with the currently widespread incineration plant. The company also developed the technology to use the treated sludge as fuel. Because domestic sewage plants burn sludge at about 850 degrees centigrade, they emit a large amount of carbon dioxide in the burning process and generates industrial wastes like incinerated ashes. Toshiba’s new plant burns sludge at a medium temperature between 500 and 600 degrees centigrade for carbonization. Besides reducing the carbon dioxide emissions by more than 80%, carbonized sludge can be sold as fuel to heat power plants to reduce the operation cost. Toshiba verified such vital factors as treatment efficiency in the pilot plant in Kyushu last year. Toshiba’s new plant with a treatment capacity of 50 tons per day will be priced between 100 million and 200 million yen. Sewage sludge is reported to reach between 70 million and 80 million tons annually and account for nearly 30% of domestic industrial wastes in Japan. Treatment of industrial wastes is a tremendous financial burden to local governments. The company wishes to get several orders after 2011 and explore the possibility of expanding the market overseas and being entrusted with the management of a sewage and sludge plant in the future.