Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 58 No.1 (March 2021)

FOREWORD

Technical Review Special Edition:
New Products & Technologies
Eisaku Ito
Exec utiv e Vi ce Pres ide n t
Chief Technology Officer
He ad o f the H ead O ffice Techn olo gy
Stra tegy O fficeWelcome to this special edition of our technical review featuring our new products andtechnologies.
In recent years, with diverse social issues such as SDGs and different individual values we attach
importance to, wide-ranging technological innovations are taking place in an accelerated manner.
Furthermore, with the worldwide spread of COVID-19, companies around the world are expected
to respond to the changes that are happening in social activities and behavior patterns including
working styles, and the emergence of important and urgent new social needs. To continue
contributing to social progress by steering its businesses with a vision for future change, Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries (MHI) Group formulated its next business plans for this year. Therein, we haveincluded the projects for the realization of MHI FUTURE STREAM as a growth strategy to enhance
our contribution to society.
Specifically, it includes promoting “decarbonization”, realizing “the intelligence of machinesystems”, developing innovative components in which electrification and intelligence evolution are
employed, and creating service menus based on a deep understanding of machinery through the fulluse of control, monitoring and data analysis. With these, we will expand our business domains tocreate new value.
This special edition introduces 22 new products and technologies as part of our recent
achievements in this context.
As the first step toward carbon neutrality by 2050, we are promoting decarbonization of thermalpower plants. We are progressing with the application of hydrogen in thermal power plants, alongwith further improvement of plant efficiency. For these to materialize, the state-of-the-art 1650°Cclass high-performance JAC gas turbine was placed in commercial operation in July 2020, and isreported on in this special edition together with its related technologies. As the liberalization of theelectricity market progresses, the future power market will get more complicated with increasing
uncertainty. We therefore present our simulation technology for the electricity market and powersystems, which will be required to cope with such situations as part of the sophistication of ourproducts/services,
Regarding intelligent machine systems, we are improving control technology with strengthened
security by integrating our expertise, AI technologies such as deep learning, and networks such as
IoT, in order to make our products autonomous, unmanned and labor-saving. As a specific example,
our next-generation AI operation support system for waste-to-energy plants, MaiDAS®, will be1

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introduced.
The following technologies that help to realize the above-mentioned products/services are alsopresented:- Various inspection technologies making use of image processing systems and ultrasonic waves- Equipment monitoring with use of digital twins- Modeling technology that realizes failure prediction- High-power laser technology and drape forming of composite materials- Friction loss reduction technology
We would appreciate your continued understanding and support for our activities.