MHIEC Receives Japan Society of Industrial Machinery Manufacturers' "Chairman's Award" for Innovative High-viscosity Sludge Dryers

Tokyo, June 20, 2019 - A lineup of innovative high-viscosity sludge dryers developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC), a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has won the "Chairman's Award" at the 45th Outstanding Environmental Systems Awards hosted by The Japan Society of Industrial Machinery Manufacturers (JSIM). The systems were highly evaluated for their unique innovations, including a clog-resistant dry-disk structure suited to high-viscosity sewage sludge-a social problem especially in China-and diverse types of industrial wastewater sludge, and energy-saving performance resulting in lower fuel consumption. An awards ceremony took place in Tokyo on June 18.

The award-winning high-viscosity sludge dryers are MHIEC's MSD (MITSUBISHI Smart Dryer) series of indirect heating-type sludge dryers. The first unit of the MSD-200, a heavy-duty model with a treatment capacity of approximately 90t/day, was delivered to China (Guangdong) in 2017. Currently, a total of five MSD series dryers are in operation in that country, including the even larger MSD-240.

Conventionally, in China highly viscous sludge could be disposed of as landfill only with its high water content intact, even after dewatering. Now, through drying, sludge volume can be reduced to approximately 25%, enabling a significant reduction in landfill disposal costs. In addition, demonstration testing has shown that with MHIEC's new drying system dewatered sludge can be used as part of the fuel mix of waste to energy plants. By using the excess steam from an adjacent waste to energy plant as the drying heat source, fossil fuels such as fuel oil become unnecessary, thereby enabling a substantial reduction in fuel costs. Furthermore, the adoption of MHIEC's proprietary biaxial/four-axis disks, which are highly resistant to both clogging and wear, has resulted in lower maintenance costs.

In China today, sludge volumes are increasing along with the expanding adoption of sludge treatment plants. Especially in the country's coastal areas where there is minimal space for new landfill, there has been increasing demand for incineration after sludge drying, to reduce its volume. MHIEC has responded to these needs and to China's expectations placed in Japanese manufacturers of environmental systems, which are recognized for their advanced technologies in both sludge dryers and sludge incinerators. Besides high-viscosity sewage sludge, MHIEC's MSD series is also expected to be useful for drying and reducing the volume of a wide range of dewatered sludge: for example, residues from chemical products, foods and biomass.

MHIEC excels in providing comprehensive solutions integrating its long track record in sludge treatment technology development and its abundant expertise in system construction and operation. After winning the latest JSIM award, the Company is now poised to greet growing demand, both from local governmental agencies and waste treatment firms, for support in supplying highly advanced sludge treatment systems to the Chinese and Southeast Asian markets, where it already has a solid record in providing waste to energy facilities. In these ways, MHIEC will continue to make contributions to saving energy and curbing global warming, part of the environmental measures taken by the industrial sector.