Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to demo separation, capture and utilization of CO2 from WtE plant

In Japan, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd. (MHIENG) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC) – two group companies of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), both based in Yokohama – are poised to commence demonstration testing of equipment for separation, capture and effective utilization of CO2 emissions from a local waste-to-energy (WtE) plant. The test program will be conducted together with the city of Yokohama and Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. The four parties recently signed a memorandum of collaboration, their collective goal set on realizing a carbon neutral society.

The demonstration testing, a joint undertaking by the private and public sectors, will integrate MHIEC and Yokohama’s knowhow in the operation of WtE plants, MHIENG’s high-performance carbon capture technology, and Tokyo Gas’s expertise in hydrogen and carbon usage. The aim is to separate, capture and effectively recycle the mainly biomass-derived CO2 in the flue gas generated during the incineration of household waste.

Under this project, MHI Group’s carbon capture technology will be applied at Yokohama’s Tsurumi Waste-to-Energy Plant, which was originally built by MHIEC. MHIENG will design and manufacture the compact CO2 capture system based on its proprietary process technologies, and MHIEC will take charge of the equipment’s installation. The high-purity CO2 separated and captured from the flue gas will be transported to Tokyo Gas’s Yokohama Techno Station, located in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, where it will be used for a demonstration test of methanation that synthesizes methane gas through chemical reaction with hydrogen, as well as for research on direct use to industrial gas.

The project will be MHIENG’s first application of its CO2 capture technology in a WtE plant. The equipment to be designed and manufactured is a compact CO2 capture system with a capture capacity of 0.3 metric tons per day (tpd), and it is applicable to various industrial facilities. It will further strengthen MHIENG’s product lineup as the company pursues increased applications of its carbon capture technologies to diverse emission sources and scales. For MHI Group, the project is significant in terms of providing a carbon negative solution responding to Japan’s decarbonization needs going forward: implementation of integrated carbon separation and capture from social infrastructure.