Mitsubishi Power offers futuristic gas turbines to Bangladesh for efficient, cleaner energy

Mitsubishi Power, a brand of Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industry Group (MHI), is one of the technology vendors in the power sector of Bangladesh that started its journey here in 1960. At present, around 20% of the country's power generation capacity is developed with this brand's equipment and technology.

Beginning with the MW251 machine and expanding its footprint with mid-level F-series, now the company is looking to provide its state-of-the-art J-series gas turbines in Bangladesh as an efficient and cleaner energy solution.

In an exclusive interview with The Business Standard, Mitsubishi Power Asia Pacific's Managing Director and CEO Osamu Ono said the latest gas turbine supports cleaner fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia, which are going to be the fuels of the future.

Net zero and power generation with less carbon emission are major targets of Bangladesh's energy transition policy. How is Mitsubishi Power going to contribute to achieving the targets?

The MHI also has a mission for achieving carbon net zero by 2040. Most countries have targeted 2050 or 2060 for net zero but our target was to achieve net zero 10 years earlier than others because we are the power generation provider.

We would like our technology or solution to be utilised for the countries and societies to achieve their targets. Therefore, we have a de-carbonisation solution like "carbon capture" for the existing Gas Turbine Combined Cycle (GTCC) plants.

Our mission is to use greener fuels like hydrogen and ammonia. High officials of the Power Division of Bangladesh have expressed their interest in hydrogen and ammonia in their future energy transition.

We are now developing our technology, targeting 2025 or 2030, to achieve 100% hydrogen firing and ammonia firing.

A large part of Bangladesh's total electricity comes from gas-fired plants, most of which are inefficient and eat up additional gas in the generation of electricity. How will Mitsubishi Power cooperate with Bangladesh in improving plant efficiency?

The efficiency of power plants, appropriate operation and maintenance can only contribute to gas consumption reduction in the existing power plants.

We have an artificial intelligence (AI) solution called "Tomoni" for remotely diagnosing the operation of gas turbines. By analysing data through AI, we can provide some recommendations to improve operation.

Tomoni performs automated optimisation of key parameters such as combustion dynamics and heat rate for part load; enables a shift to condition-based maintenance; and goes beyond what is humanly possible, analysing all of the data collected by today's smarter power plants to create powerful actionable insights.

What are the upcoming new technologies being offered by Mitsubishi Power to the world and to Bangladesh in the coming days?

We have combustion technology for hydrogen and ammonia. We have a hydrogen park named "Takasago Hydrogen Park" where we have J-series gas turbines.

The J-series gas turbine has the highest efficiency with a larger size capacity. We hope we can provide our J-series turbines to Bangladesh as soon as possible.

Besides, Mitsubishi Power is taking part in the hydrogen conversion of a natural Gas Combustion Turbine Combined Cycle (GTCC) at the Magnum Power Plant in the Netherlands.

The project aims to convert one of the three existing M701F gas turbines to a 100%-hydrogen firing device and ultimately drive demand for hydrogen amongst thermal power businesses.

The MHI Group also has the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, essential for supplying carbon-free (blue) hydrogen, playing a vital role towards the growth of a hydrogen society. We are leading the market for CO2 capture from post-combustion flue gas at commercial plants.

As a power solutions company, what are the new opportunities Mitsubishi Power sees in the Bangladeshi power sector?

In general, de-carbonisation cannot be achieved in one night. It is a long journey. Another point is how realistic and concrete are the plans we have to achieve the target.

As a new opportunity, some ammonia supply chain may be possible in future in Bangladesh.

We would like to explore such an opportunity to utilise the existing supply chain of ammonia to utilise or produce green ammonia.

What is the impact and contribution of Mitsubishi Power in the development of the Bangladesh power sector?

Our contribution to the power sector of Bangladesh is about 20%, beginning with our first generator supply in 1960.

We are not only a technology and equipment supplier, but we also monitor the equipment operation remotely. We always provide the latest technology through ensuring efficiency.

Efficiency improvement of the existing machines is a very significant effort toward de-carbonisation because improved technology helps to decrease CO2 emission.