Clean energy production

On a cold day like today, my gas stove is keeping me warm. I wish I had a kotatsu! A problem with the housing here is that all windows are single glass only, while in Sweden we usually have 3 layers of glass to keep the cold out.

Japan uses less energy per unit of gross domestic product than any other country. This is one result of its energy conservation measures following the oil crises of the 1970s. Japan Times notes that Japan is helping other parts of Asia, including emerging powerhouses China and India, to curb coal consumption. The effort is not altruism, it is a bid to bolster Japan's own energy security:

Japan's clean coal push self-serving as well

Every year, Japan invites about 60 engineers and managers from the coal industry of seven Asian nations -- China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and India -- to instruct them in the use of "clean coal technology," or CCT, which aims to improve the mineral's efficiency while reducing carbon dioxide emissions and pollution.

The program, which lasts three weeks to a month, started in 1996. This year, 14 engineers visited the Coal & Environment Research Laboratory of Idemitsu Kosan Co. in Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture, to see "kaizen" (continuous improvement) efforts boost the combustion efficiency of coal.

"Clean coal technology is still developing and not widely used. For further improving the efficiency of energy combustion, we need IGCC and IGFC in the future," said Kaushlendra Kumar Mishra of Coal India Ltd.

IGCC, or integrated gasification combined cycle, and IGFC, integrated coal gasification fuel-cell combined cycle, are advanced clean coal technologies that have been introduced on an experimental basis.

Mishra said the Japanese cooperation project "helps us in understanding and disseminating CCT, especially for environmental protection."

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