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Circular Systems Engineering Lab (Koyo Norinaga)
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A lab that develops technologies for capturing CO2 from the air and putting it to use, through collaboration among industry, academia, and government.
AboutAbout the lab
Building a future that captures CO2
The Norinaga-Machida-Yanase Lab studies technologies for separating, capturing, and utilizing carbon dioxide (CO2).
Looking ahead to a future society where CO2 separation and capture is widely used, the lab conducts research in collaboration among universities, companies, and national government agencies.
The lab works on technology that directly captures CO2 from the atmosphere using the cold energy of liquefied natural gas, as well as on predicting and simulating reactions that convert biomass and coal into fuels and raw materials.
Key terms
- Direct air capture
- A technology that directly extracts and collects the carbon dioxide present at low concentration in the atmosphere. Also called DAC.
- Unused cold energy
- The cold released when liquefied natural gas is returned to a gas, which until now has been discarded without being used.
- Gasification
- Reacting solids such as coal and biomass at high temperature to convert them into gases that can be used as fuel or raw materials.
NewsLab news
Paper by Prof. Norinaga and colleagues published in AIChE Journal
Paper by Prof. Norinaga and colleagues published in Chemical Engineering Science
Paper by Prof. Norinaga and colleagues published in Carbon Capture Science & Technology
Paper by Prof. Norinaga and colleagues published in the Proceedings of the Biomass Science Conference
Joint research with a company announced results on producing fuel from the effluent of biogas power generation
ResearchResearch themes
Looking ahead to a future society where CO2 separation and capture is widely implemented, the lab pursues industry-academia-government collaborative research on CO2 capture and utilization. Its work covers direct air capture of atmospheric CO2, modeling and simulation of reactions of carbon resources, thermochemical conversion of biomass and other materials, and energy-efficient CO2 separation and capture.
*Illustrative imageCapturing CO2 from the air using cold energy
The lab studies the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere, which is considered a key measure against global warming. A team from industry, government, and academia is developing "Cryo-DAC," a new process that uses unused cold energy, such as that from liquefied natural gas, with the aim of lowering the cost of direct air capture.
*Illustrative imageSimulating complex reactions of carbon resources
To develop technologies that convert carbon resources into energy and materials, such as the gasification of coal and biomass, more efficiently and quickly, the lab builds an information infrastructure on reactions and simulation techniques that predict reaction characteristics with high accuracy.
*Illustrative imageEfficiently converting biomass and coal
In collaboration with companies and other partners, the lab works on developing technologies that convert renewable biomass and low-grade coal into energy and materials, and on putting them to practical use in society.
*Illustrative imageEnergy-efficient CO2 separation and capture
A major challenge in separating and capturing CO2 from factories and other sources is the large amount of energy required. The lab develops a new absorbent that separates into two liquid layers when it absorbs CO2, and aims to achieve large energy savings by creating a CO2-rich layer.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Norinaga-Machida-Yanase Lab consist of faculty, researchers, technical and administrative assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKoyo Norinaga
- Associate ProfessorHiroshi Machida
- LecturerKeiichi Yanase
- Project LecturerAyumi Tanimura
- Project LecturerYusuke Uehara
- Project Assistant ProfessorLI Zijing
- Project Assistant ProfessorJustin Junita
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Red Trail Energy ethanol CO2 capture plant Richardton ND1” Acroterion / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Capturing CO2 from the air using cold energy: “Dry Ice Pellets Subliming” Richard Wheeler (Zephyris) at en.wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Simulating complex reactions of carbon resources: “Morgantown Gasifier” Mills-NETL / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Efficiently converting biomass and coal: “Wood pellets-small huddle PNr°0108” D-Kuru / CC BY-SA 3.0 at (cropped)
- Energy-efficient CO2 separation and capture: “Boundary Dam capture unit CO2 compressor” Implicit Matrix / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Chemical Reaction Systems Engineering Lab (Katsutoshi Nagaoka)): “CHEMISTRY LABORATORY ROOMS 6 AND 7 CHEMICAL SHOCK TUBE - HIGH ENERGY FUELS LABORATORY HEFL ROOM 112 CATALYTIC PARTIAL OXIDATION REACTOR - NARA - 17497813” Donald Huebler / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Interface Systems Engineering Lab): “SEM Image of Colloidal Particles” Yasrena / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Nanostructure Control Lab): “Transmission electron microscope circa 1960” CDC/ Dr. Hogan / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Circular Systems Engineering Lab (Keiji Yasuda)): “Glaskolben” -grimbart / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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