Formation of the basic grounds for the development of an environmentally clean seed-free MHD electrical power generation

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H02346
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Energy engineering
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Okuno Yoshihiro 東京工業大学, 工学院, 教授 (10194507)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 藤野 貴康 筑波大学, システム情報系, 准教授 (80375427)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: MHD発電 / 電力工学 / エネルギー効率化 / 省エネルギー / 電磁流体力学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of the research is to establish the basic grounds for the development of an environmentally clean MHD (magnetohydrodynamics) electrical power generation without any seed material (alkali metal), where a pure inert gas plasma is used as a working fluid. The seed-free inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generation has been successfully demonstrated in the experiments with shock-tunnel facility for the first time, by means of radio-frequency pre-ionization technique at the generator inlet. Furthermore, the quite high performance has been predicted reliably in the multi-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic plasma fluid flow numerical simulations. Consequently, the fruitful suggestion and the problem to be overcome in the future study have been accumulated, which surely contributes to further developments for the realization of the seed-free inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generation.

Free Research Field

エネルギー学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

地球温暖化対策のみならず，我が国のエネルギー安全保障の観点から，より一層環境に適合する高効率な発電システムの構築が求められている。本研究では，多様な熱源に適応できる高効率クローズドサイクルＭＨＤ発電の実用化を目指し，従来の研究では煩雑ながらも不可避とされてきた「シード」（金属蒸気の微量添加）のフリー化という画期的なブレークスルーを達成し，独創的な学術的意義を提示するとともに，実用化に向けての着実な礎を築いた。