MHI participated at a conference and exhibition as part of the 15th Conference on Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI 2004) in Shanghai, October 18-22.
It was the first time for the conference to be held in China, which has been notable for its demand for electricity rising along with its economic growth. More than 250 papers were presented at the conference, and MHI presented the following two papers on the latest technology in steam and gas turbines.

(1)Two-Casing Design for High Temperature 600 MW Class Steam Turbine Applying 48 Inch Steel Last Stage Blades
It is now possible to reduce the 600 MW class steam turbines, which have typically been designed with three casing, down to two casing. This was made possible mainly due to the development and application of the world's longest 48-inch last stage steel blades for 3,000-rpm turbines. In addition, a highly efficient and compact design in achieving 600-degree-Celsius ultra super critical steam condition was realized by employing a combined casing, which is comprised of a high-pressure turbine and an intermediate-pressure turbine in the one frame. Tokyo Electric Power's 600 MW Hirono No. 5 Thermal Power Plant, which has the world's largest capacity in two casing layout, utilized this design and commenced commercial operation this past July.

(2) Design for Blast Furnace Gas Firing Gas Turbine
Blast Furnace Gas (BFG) is by-product gas from blast furnace in steel work and its quantity is huge. And there has been a strong requirement for the development of a highly efficient, large capacity BFG-firing gas turbine in order to effectively utilize this BFG. However, comparing BFG with natural gas for standard industrial gas turbine fuel, there are technical difficulties such as the low calorie and so on. Therefore, the advanced combustion systems etc. are required to satisfy them. MHI has developed and delivered BFG firing gas turbine based on our many low calorie gas firing gas turbine experiences and the world's first F class BFG firing gas turbine combined cycle plant began commercial operation this past July. For effective utilization of low calorie gas, MHI will continue the further technical development and contribute to the environmental protection.

At the concurrently run exhibition, MHI also presented state-of-the-art technology on power generation, with a display centering on a gas turbine model as well as a model of a 1000 MW class ultra super critical boiler turbine plant.