Photo/Illutration The inside of the carbon dioxide circulation system, with which Denso Corp. conducts verification tests, is shown at the Anjo works in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture. (Provided by Denso Corp.)

KARIYA, Aichi Prefecture--Auto parts supplier Denso Corp. is working on a technology to recover carbon dioxide (CO2) from production processes as a renewable energy source that is expected to play a key role in realizing a carbon-free manufacturing industry.

Denso, one of Japan’s largest car component businesses, with an eye on commercializing the technology by 2030, plans to make its use common and contribute to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goal of ensuring “access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

Yukihiro Shinohara, a senior executive officer at Denso, said during an online event in May that the company "will be heading toward a carbon-neutral factory system with the CO2 circulation technique.”

Denso, which was established in 1949 by spinning off the electric equipment department from what is now Toyota Motor Corp., installed the CO2 circulation plant in July last year on the grounds of its Anjo facilities in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture.

The plant retrieves CO2 generated by gas-based machines, so the collected CO2 and hydrogen are combined to produce methane for fuel. It was jointly created by Denso and Toyota Central R＆D Labs Inc., another Toyota group firm in the prefecture’s Nagakute.

Challenges remain with perfecting the technology, and Denso is moving toward its practical use by putting it through verification tests.

The company is making efforts to render the power reuse cycle far more efficient. One problem is how to minimize the energy used for CO2 collection and methane synthesis. 

Given that the recently introduced circulation system is 8 meters long, 12 meters wide and 4 meters tall, its size needs to be made much smaller for the equipment to be set up more easily at production facility sites.

Denso has been taking advantage of power-saving methods and renewable energy as part of an endeavor to virtually cut all CO2 emissions from production procedures by 2035.

According to Shinohara, the “unstable supply of renewable energy” forces Denso to rely on not only the circulation plant but also artificial photosynthesis, under which solar power is utilized to make organic compounds from CO2, and other ways to reuse CO2.

While a CO2 recovery technique is already being developed for manufacturing facilities in the heavy and steel industry with larger amounts of CO2 emissions, Denso anticipates its invention will cater to auto parts factories and other businesses that emit less CO2.

No effective methods have been established in the field due to the difficulty involved in collecting CO2 efficiently in such facilities, Denso said. The company’s future plan is to recycle CO2 from households and in the air for energy generation.

“By developing these technologies as early as possible, we will help to create a society where people can live in a cleaner, more comfortable fashion,” Shinohara said.

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