Many consumers throughout the world use Honda's power products, as well as its automobiles and motorcycles. The Power Products R&D Center develops generators, tillers, lawn mowers, snowblowers, and general-purpose engines that function as the heart of such equipments, and also conducts research and development for wide range of useful power products for high quality life of people, such as outboard motors, household gas engine cogeneration units, electric 4 wheel scooters.

In its development, Honda actively committed not only to quality, user-friendliness, and economy but also to the increasingly serious issues of global warming and how to improve energy efficiency. Honda has long been a leading company achieving low exhaust gas emissions, high fuel efficiency, low noise, and other aspects.

Developing household-purpose gas engine cogeneration units

The Power Products R&D Center develops household-purpose gas engine cogeneration units.
Honda's household-purpose gas engine cogeneration units are energy-saving equipment that generates electrical energy through its engine and generator, while producing heat energy efficiently collected from hot waste heat generated from combustion for use in heating water and room air.

The third-generation MCHP1.0K2 cogeneration unit incorporates the Extended Expansion Linkage Engine (EXlink)^*1 which features a unique trigonal link for a higher expansion ratio. The EXlink achieves a thermal cycle based on the Atkinson cycle with a high expansion ratio to offer an engine system having a longer expansion stroke than its intake stroke with the aid of the company's newly developed trigonal link mechanism, and thus represents the world's first mass-produced small-sized gas engine. The model compresses a small amount of fuel and air, burns the gas mixture, expands it to a larger volume, and burns it at an expansion ratio as high as 1.4 times the compression ratio, thereby maximizing the intake of combustion energy. By increasing the heat recovery of the gas engine and the inverter's generation efficiency, Honda achieved a total thermal efficiency of 92%.^*2 As compared with cases involving thermal power generation and a conventional water/room heating system, this product reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 39% per operating time, makes effective use of resources and energy, and otherwise proves to be environmentally friendly.

*1: EXlink is a coined term for "Extended Expansion Linkage Engine" and a trademark of Honda.
*2: A standard for low heating value (LHV) at an LLC water-dispenser temperature of 75°C from the Honda household-purpose gas engine cogeneration unit (MCHP1.0K2).