Panasonic claims first hydrogen/gas-fired absorption chiller
7th August 2025
JAPAN: A consortium of Japanese companies has developed what is claimed to be the industry’s first absorption chiller-heater compatible with mixed combustion of hydrogen and natural gas.
The newly developed absorption chiller-heater is capable of operating on a combination of hydrogen and gas, in addition to being able to operate on either hydrogen or gas.
The multi-fuel compatible unit allows for a mixed combustion ratio of 0% to 100%, and existing city gas-fuelled units can be upgraded to hydrogen-compatible units simply by replacing a few parts, such as the burner and fuel piping.
By incorporating a burner that reduces the flame temperature during hydrogen combustion, NOx levels in the exhaust gas are suppressed to less than 40ppm.
Previously, due to the differences in combustion characteristics of each fuel, a dedicated burner and combustion air flow rate adjustment was required for each fuel, but these issues have been resolved with the newly developed hydrogen/gas dual-use burner and combustion control unit.
The three companies say they will continue to conduct verification tests toward commercialisation.
The Osaka-based Daigas Group has been selling absorption chillers and heaters to office buildings and other facilities since 1970. Daigas Energy has also developed and sold numerous city gas burners for commercial equipment and industrial furnaces, accumulating knowledge in combustion technology and air ratio control technology for burning fuel efficiently and safely. In recent years, in response to customer requests, the company has also been working on developing combustion technology that can also be used with next-generation fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia.
