No. 204: Use slag of steelmaking to mitigate global warming (December 1, 2010)

Japanese steelmakers will strengthen their efforts to use slag, a by-product in the steelmaking process, to mitigate global warming. JFE Steel will cement steel slag produced in the process to adjust iron’s constituents in the plate shape to use them for the regeneration of coral reefs in Okinawa Prefecture. The company will raise the coral branches planted on the plates in an aquarium and put them back to the sea. It will expand these activities in Indonesia where it is now conducting the preliminary study. Nippon Steel put a total of 500 tons of slag blocks and feed materials made of steel slag and fermented thinned wood in the sea off Hokkaido. Iron of the feed materials steeps in the sea and helps kelps grow. The company plans to produce resins made of kelps to prevent rotten kelps from emitting carbon dioxide. It estimates that 23 million tons of carbon dioxide can be reduced if the same activities spread the coastline throughout Japan. Sumitomo Metal also put slag blocks in the sea off Wakayama Prefecture to proliferate lobsters and algae in alliance with local fisheries cooperatives. Steel slag is mainly used as the road bed in road maintenance and improvement, but demand for steel slag has been decreasing drastically because of the decreasing number of public projects. Currently, only one percent of steel slag is used for marine purposes, and the Japanese steelmaking industry plans to increase the ratio to 25% in the future.

No. 203: Build carbon nanotube transistor using the ink-jet printing technology (November 30, 2010)

NEC developed the technology to build high-performance carbon nanotube transistors using the ink-jet printing technology. The technology makes it possible to create more elaborate circuits than the conventional printing technology for higher performance of a transistor. A carbon nanotube transistor is applicable to a thin and bendable display should it be printed on a plastic substrate. The company improved the refinement method of nanotube and increased the purity of nanotube contained in the ink. Besides, it devised the composition of the ink to prevent the exhaust nozzle of a printer from getting clogged even if high concentration ink is used. In the experiment, the technology successfully created a circuit with lines of about 70 micrometers wide. The width of a line that the current technology can print is about several hundreds of micrometers. NEC plans to put the newly-developed technology into practical use in five years.

No. 202: A complex system for the optimal combination (November 29, 2010)

Experiment facilities to conduct research for the optimal combination of biofuel, photovoltaic generation, and fuel cell are under construction in the premises of the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture for the purpose of developing the supply system of the next-generation clean energy. The facilities are made up of equipment that cultures oil-producing algae to produce biofuel, solar panels, wind power generators, and fuel cells. The culture equipment has transparent pipes overtop to put algae and tracks the sun to activate photosynthesis. The facilities are scheduled to be completed to start the research toward the end of this year. Researchers from Japan’s leading research agencies, such as Advance Industrial Science and Technology, National Institute for Material Science, and National Institute for Environmental Studies, will participate in the research. In addition to producing alga oil, the research team will produce hydrogen from the strained lees of algae and radiate LED light that uses electricity generated by the sunlight in the night to the algae. It will also study the system that does not require the conversion from direct current to alternative current. The collaboration and merger of the different research agencies attracts a wide attention.

No. 201: Japan assists Thailand with nuclear power generation (November 28, 2010)

The Japan Atomic Power Company concluded an agreement on technological cooperation to introduce nuclear power generation to Thailand with Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) that is the state-run electric power company in Thailand. The Thai government plans to start the operation of Thai’s first operate nuclear power generation around 2020. The Japan Atomic Power gives EGAT a comprehensive support that includes advice on the development project and training for engineers for three years that is the period stipulated in the agreement. Thailand is the third country that the company concluded the agreement on technological cooperation because it had already concluded such agreement with Republic of Kazakhstan and Vietnam. EGAT concluded the same agreement with China last November. It is unknown whether or not Japanese technology will be adopted in the process of developing the nuclear power generation plan in Thailand.

No. 200: An organic superconductive material (November 27, 2010)

Organic materials supposed to be unsuitable for superconductivity attract worldwide attention. A research team participated by researchers of Okayama University and Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science found a material able to null electric resistance at about 80 degrees centigrade higher than the current level. Should this material be synthesized, the research has the possibility to become epoch-making. Currently, cooling a metal down to minus 259 degrees centigrade is required to make it superconductive. However, a researcher of Okayama University published an organic material that can be superconductive at four degrees centigrade higher than the existing level in the English science magazine Nature last March. He mixed potassium with picene that is an inexpensive oil component. The above research team showed the possibility of achieving superconductivity at minus 173 degrees centigrade if an organic substance phenanthrene is used in place of picene by theoretical calculation this month. Currently, all materials including ceramic have to be cooled to become superconductive. However, if the critical temperature to null electric resistance goes above minus 196 that is the temperature of liquid nitrogen, the technology will be totally practical.

No. 199: Aluminum wire harness for vehicles (November 26, 2010)

Furukawa Electric will start mass production of aluminum wire harness for vehicles in Indonesia and Vietnam in 2011. Aluminum wire harness is about 40% lighter than copper wire harness. The electric vehicle and the hybrid vehicle carry more electric components than the gasoline vehicle, it has been a critical issue to make wire harness lighter. The company will produce the intermediate materials from aluminum alloy in its company established jointly with Toyoda Tsusho and local capital, and process them electric wires in Vietnam. The scheduled production capacity is six tons per month, and finished products will mostly be shipped to Japan. The aluminum alloy contains magnesium, iron, and copper for higher electric conductivity, more strength, and better flexibility. The conductor of aluminum wire harness weighs half as copper wire harness. Even if it is coated for insulation, it is about 40% lighter than copper wire harness. Furukawa Electric wishes to reduce the production cost to the same or lower the level of copper wire harness by dint of mass production in several years. Aluminum wire harness will be used for power transmission to the motor and information exchange of the sensor. A vehicle carries about 40 kg of wire harness, and the weight of wire harness can be reduced to two thirds if aluminum wire harness is used for the two purposes.

No. 198: Robot for the purification of water quality (November 25, 2010)

NAC Corp. in Gifu Prefecture developed a robot to purify water quality in alliance with Wabot-House Laboratory of Waseda University and Gifu Pharmaceutical University. The company combined its ultrafine froth generation equipment with the underwater exploration robot of Wabot-House Laboratory. The robot looks into the underwater of a pond and lake, locates dysoxic areas, and oxygenizes them effectively, whereby it activates the activities of aerobic microbes to purify water quality. Gifu Pharmaceutical University collected data in the experiments and verified the water quality, and a trial product was built. The company plans to sell this robot. It designs and builds a robot responding to the environment of the lake, pond, and river to be explored. The mounted sensor measures the underwater oxygen concentration around the robot. If the area is found to be a dysoxic area, the operator on the land remote-controls the robot to let the equipment on the robot generate ultrafine froths using air. Equipped with such apparatus as postural sensor, underwater camera, and sound navigation and ranging (sonar), and can move forward, dive, and emerge using four screws. The equipment developed by NAC sends compressed air of 0.1 MPa to the inside of the cylindrical special porous film. Compared with the conventional method to compress froths to ultrafine froths, NAC’s equipment can generate ultrafine froths even in the deep area inside water only by adjusting the pressure of air to send.