Energy & Sustainable Innovation | RESEARCH

Battery System Efficient Operation Solution

Yokogawa contributes to society's resilience by balancing the supply and demand of renewable energy through safe and secure battery operation.

The key to the introduction of renewable energy is to respond to fluctuations in generated power, and power storage ponds help to balance supply and demand. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to balance the quality of the battery system with the introduction cost. Power efficiency is high Li-ion batteries, which are complex to control, are measured and controlled in operation using electrochemical methods to realize safe, secure and efficient operation of storage battery systems.

Magnetic Fiber Sensing

A fiber sensor can measure the distribution of magnetic fields along an object of any shape, improving the efficiency of flaw and abnormality detection and facility diagnosis.

Much time and effort is needed to inspect multiple positions for any defects in steel materials, abnormalities in rotating equipment, and deteriorated parts of structures. Thanks to its flexible fiber structure, this magnetic sensor can be easily installed along an object of any shape. Since the sensor cables are inexpensive, initial costs are low even when many locations are to be measured. A single cable can measure multiple points, greatly reducing the burden on plant engineers for inspection and improving the efficiency of diagnosis.

Compact AC/DC current sensor for large current

We provide a small current sensor that can be installed in the crowded space and contribute to high efficiency of storage batteries / motors / inverters.

In the development process of hybrid vehicles (HV) and electric vehicles (EV), it is difficult to secure space for current sensors due to the miniaturization of vehicle bodies and the integration of modules. The sensor head of this current sensor has been made smaller than that of conventional products by eliminating the magnetic core, so it can be installed in the crowded space. By combining with a waveform measuring device or a power measuring device, the characteristics of a single unit or module such as a storage battery / motor / inverter can be analyzed to achieve high energy efficiency.

Core-less Current Sensor

A miniaturized sensor can measure large currents up to 1000 A and contribute to easy-setup and energy saving.

Innovation Center is developing technologies for sensing magnetic field has resulted in compact, lightweight core-less current sensors, which can be flexibly installed. These sensors can measure a wide range DC from 10 mA to 1000 A. Visualizing the energy consumption of various instruments facilitates energy-saving activities.

Effective Way of Recycling Carbon Dioxide

Microbial methanation can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and produce carbon resources, achieving a sustainable low-carbon society.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been increasing globally, resulting in a high CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and acidification of the oceans. Therefore, ways of reducing CO2 emissions are actively being researched. Microbial methanation is a promising way to produce carbon resources while reducing CO2 and hydrogen emitted from plants.

Real-time Pipeline Deposits Monitoring

By measuring the temperature outside the piping, the system estimates the shape and amount of deposits, ensuring optimum pipeline operation.

Innovation Center is developing a system that monitors the shape and amount of deposits in real time by measuring the temperature on the outer surface of piping. In the oil and gas industries, deposits such as wax, asphaltene, and hydrate are a major problem affecting pipelines. This system continuously monitors the growth of deposits to ensure that the pipeline can be kept functioning smoothly, such as by determining the timing of removing deposits, selecting the optimal removal method, and preventing clogging.

Optical Fiber Sensing Solution

Yokogawa’s optical fiber sensing solution can quickly detect abnormal conditions in oil and petrochemical plants and improves the health, safety, environment, and maintenance (HSE&M) of facilities.

Facilities of plants are distributed over a wide area and their structures are complicated, and thus they need appropriate maintenance for improving productivity. Innovation Center’s solution uses only a single optical fiber to obtain and analyze plant information such as temperature, strain, and vibration, securing HSE&M and improving the production efficiency of customers’ plants.

Optical Fiber Sensors for High Temperature Measurement

Measuring the temperature distribution over a large structure can help detect abnormalities early, optimize operations and prevent accidents in marine engines, distillation columns, and other large facilities.

Optical fiber sensors arranged inside or outside large marine engines, distillation columns, or long piping can measure the temperature distribution. This solution can quickly detect abnormalities such as poor combustion, piston seizure, temperature irregularities, overheating, and wall thinning, thus helping optimize operations, improve product quality, and prevent accidents.

High-sensitivity Remote Gas Sensing

Gas cloud imaging (GCI) remotely measures the distribution of gas and can visualize quickly and safely what kind of gas is leaking from where and how much.

This new laser technology monitors the gas distribution over a wide area which cannot be covered by conventional point gas detectors. Wide-area imaging can identify the source of leakage quickly. GCI improves the efficiency of maintenance, prevents and minimizes damage due to gas leakage, and helps monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Satellite data solution

By enhancing forest monitoring operations, we support the relief from labor-intensive work and efficient situational judgment.

Using remote sensing data from satellites, we can remotely and easily diagnose the situation of forests over a vast area and detect abnormalities in a short time. Based on the diagnosis results, it leads to efficient situational judgment such as early detection of damage due to pests and identification of abnormal areas, and supports on-site decision making.

Knowledge inheritance with autonomous suggestions

Suggesting maintenance actions against sudden asset failure.

Context-aware is a technology in which a system suggests necessary information and services based on user’s situation. This research activity aims at applying this technology to maintenance planning. Before performing maintenance work, preparation is necessary, such as environment, assignment of skills / people, and application for approvment in advance. However, for the good preparation, past experience and time-consuming maintenance history search are necessary. Context-aware automatically suggests the appropriate setup task for the problem that occurred, so that anyone can realize the appropriate preparation in a short time.

Automatic generation technology for image recognition AI

AI automatic generation technology makes it easy to realize high-precision image analysis AI, contributing to productivity improvement and autonomy.

Deep learning, which has been popular in recent years, is a very powerful AI. Although there are several non-programming AI tools, advanced AI engineering such as model structure determination and learning Parameter tuning is still required. Therefore, YOKOGAWA developed "AI automatic generation technology". It easily provides high-precision image recognition AI and contributes to productivity improvement and autonomy.

Behavior measurement by token economy

By providing a token system using blockchain technology, we will visualize the behavioral characteristics of participants and contribute to the improvement of organizational management.

In recent years, it has been necessary to improve work engagement in order to demonstrate the performance of employees, and expectations are rising for both internal currency that visualizes contributions and efforts to show gratitude. The Token Economy is an organization or group management method that encourages participants to become habitual in their behavior by giving them tokens as proof of their evaluation when they do what they are expected to be desired. This system provides support for incentive design based on behavior measurement infrastructure and evaluation data for the token economy.

Sense making AI to support operational improvement

We will support operational improvement by fusing data analysis with human knowledge and clarifying the results and grounds.

Process data is a high dimensional data with hundreds of variables or more. Since they are intricately intertwined, it is difficult to grasp the essence of manufacturing issues such as where and how to control concretely. Therefore, we will support operational improvement by clarifying issues through technology that sorts data by event and technology that clarifies judgment grounds from a process perspective.