Tokyo Electric Power Launches Biomass Fuel Business

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) will launch a biomass fuel processing business that will carbonize sewage sludge, which is currently burned before landfill disposal by local municipalities. Carbonization will convert the sludge into biomass fuel, which TEPCO will sell, the company announced on September 20, 2005.

TEPCO, in cooperation with its subsidiary Bio Fuel Co., has been entrusted with a project to carbonize sewage sludge at the Water Reclamation Center of Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Sewerage in Sunamachi, Koto Ward Tokyo. The companies will be responsible for all processes, from the construction, operation and maintenance of the carbonization plant to the marketing of the biomass fuel. They plan to produce 8,700 tons of carbonized biomass fuel annually from 99,000 tons of dehydrated sludge generated through the process of sewage sludge treatment at the Sunamachi Center. The biomass fuel will be transported and sold to a coal thermal power plant run by Joban Joint Power Co., located in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture. In the power plant, the fuel will be mixed with coal in a ratio of around one percent and burned. The operation is scheduled to start in October 2007.

This business will recycle around nine percent of the sewerage sludge generated annually in Tokyo. The carbonization treatment can reduce CO2 emissions by 37,000 tons compared to burning the sludge. It can also cut emissions by around 9,200 tons annually as a result of cutting fossil fuel use. TEPCO estimates about 46,200 tons of CO2 emissions will be reduced annually.

TEPCO is examining the possibility to expand this model business, the first of its kind in Japan, to other municipalities.


http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/challenge/environ/environ-e.html

Posted: 2006/01/21 06:37:57 AM
Japanese version