MHI Receives Order for CO2 Capture Unit For Nippon Ekitan's Mizushima Plant, To Support Production of Liquefied Carbonic Acid Gas

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has received an order from Nippon Ekitan Corporation for a carbon dioxide (CO2) capture unit for new liquefied carbonic acid gas production facilities under construction at that company's Mizushima Plant in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. The new unit will serve to capture CO2 generated by Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation's (MCC) Mizushima Plant. Recovery capacity will be 283 metric tons per day (mtpd), with installation slated for completion in October 2017.

MHI will license its CO2 capture technology to Mitsubishi Chemical Engineering Corporation, which is to handle engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the new liquefied carbonic acid gas production facilities. In addition, MHI will be responsible for the basic design of the CO2 capture unit and supply its core components.

Nippon Ekitan is a group company of Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corporation that undertakes business in Japan relating to carbonic acid gas. The company primarily purchases high-density carbonic acid gas from petrochemical firms, ammonia manufacturers, etc. and, after liquefying and refining it, markets it as liquefied carbonic acid gas and dry ice.

The Taiyo Nippon Sanso group became a member of the Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation group in November 2014, and today it is promoting collaboration with Taiyo Nippon Sanso's various business enterprises. The liquefied carbonic acid gas production facilities being newly constructed will use an absorption solvent to separate and capture CO2 from low-density carbonic acid gas generated by Mitsubishi Chemical's Mizushima Plant, where Nippon Ekitan's Mizushima Plant is located, to enable the production of high-quality liquefied carbonic acid gas.

MHI's CO2 capture technology, known as the "KM CDR Process™," uses a high-performance absorption solvent (KS-1™) jointly developed with The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. This technology achieves significant reductions in energy consumption compared with earlier methods, and since 1999 it has been adopted in 11 plants to capture CO2 from the flue gas of boilers fired by natural gas or fuel oil at chemical plants worldwide. This track record has made MHI a global leader in commercial applications of CO2 capture units.

Besides the production of liquefied carbonic acid gas and dry ice, MHI's CO2 capture technology can be employed in a wide array of applications. These include: chemical applications such as production of urea, methanol and dimethyl ether (DME); capture and storage of CO2 generated by thermal power plants, etc.; and enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which is targeted at increasing crude oil production by injecting CO2 into oil reservoirs suffering from declining productivity.

Going forward, MHI will continue to make contributions to sustainable economic development and environmental protection through proactive initiatives promoting its advanced CO2 capture technology.