Thermal Energy Applications Group

Waste heat from distributed energy system outlets and air conditioner outdoor units, waste heat from solid waste incineration, various types of low quality waste heat from human activities (for example, the heat contained in domestic waste water, etc.), and some natural sources of heat, solar and geothermal, etc. are discharged as unutilized energy. Since the available energy in such sources of heat is small (i.e., the temperature is only slightly higher than that of the ambient atmosphere), it is difficult to put it to effective use. Such thermal energy is also one of the factors contributing to the recently debated problem of urban warming. The importance of disposing of heat in a sound manner has been recognized.

We aim for the following technologies: thermal energy storage by taking advantage of the supercooling of phase change materials; utilization of the thermal functions of the earth's crust; waste heat recovery and transportation with almost no additional power supply; and so forth.

Group Leader: Hiromi TAKEUCHI
Members: Koji MORITA, Satoshi HIRANO, Shinya KAMIYAMA

Performance evaluation of the system at our laboratory.	A system under performance evaluation at a single-family house in Tsukuba.
Development of ground-source air-conditioning and hot water supply systems for single-family houses

Thermal Energy Applications Group

AIST Tsukuba West, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8569 Japan
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