MHI Receives Large-scale CO2 Recovery Plant Order

The CO2 recovery plant, which will be built within QAFAC's methanol production plant near Doha, Qatar's capital city, will capture CO2 from combustion exhaust gas emitted in the methanol production process. The CO2 separated and recovered from the flue gas using MHI's proprietary KS-1™ solvent will be provided as feedstock for boosting methanol production. In conjunction with plant order, MHI will license its CO2 recovery technology to QAFAC through MIES. MIES will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), and Mitsubishi Corporation will handle the trade particulars.

Although MHI has previously licensed its CO2 recovery technology to many plants around the world, the QAFAC order represents only the third licensing-plus-EPC order for one of its CO2 recovery plants. The last time was for the first commercial CO2 recovery plant delivered to Malaysia, back in 1999.

QAFAC is a petrochemical company established in 1990 with headquarters in Doha. The company produces methanol and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

MIES, established in October 2010, mainly provides engineering, marketing and services relating to environmental protection and chemical plants. The order from QAFAC marks its first EPC order.

MHI's CO2 recovery technology is known as the KM CDR Process®. It uses the company's proprietary KS-1 solvent for CO2 absorption and desorption, which MHI and Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. developed jointly. MHI's technology features considerably lower energy consumption compared with other processes, winning it high evaluations from the market for its performance. To date MHI has delivered nine commercial CO2 recovery plants in Japan and other countries, and another plant is currently under construction – a track record that makes MHI a leader in the industry.

In addition to urea and methanol production, CO2 recovery technology can be employed in other chemical applications such as production of dimethyl ether (DME). Other important applications possible are carbon capture and storage (CCS) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR). CCS is used to capture CO2 from flue gas from plants, including thermal power generation plants, and sequester CO2 in deep subsurfaces such as brine aquifers as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. EOR is employed to boost crude oil production; the CO2 is injected into an oil reservoir suffering from low productivity.

Going forward MHI looks to market its CO2 recovery technology aggressively not only for chemical applications but for use in the CCS and EOR fields also.

Note:
KM-CDR Process is a registered trademark of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., in Japan, the United States, the European Union (CTM), Norway, Australia and China.