MHIEC Receives Order from Sendai City to Refurbish Matsumori Waste-to-Energy Plant
-- Renovation to Extend Service Life, Save Energy, and Reduce Annual Carbon Emissions by More Than 8% --

Tokyo, November 16, 2021 – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC), a Group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has received an order from Sendai City (Miyagi Pref.) for refurbishment of its Matsumori Waste-to-Energy Plant, an incineration plant for municipal solid waste. The order calls for renovation of the facility’s three stoker-type incinerators(Note1), capable of processing 600 tonnes per day (tpd), to extend the plant’s service life and enhance its energy efficiency in a quest to reduce its carbon emissions. The five-year contract is valued at 9.33 billion Japanese yen, with completion scheduled for January 2026.

The Matsumori Waste-to-Energy Plant was originally designed and constructed by MHI. On completion in August 2005, the facility incorporated three stoker-type incinerators each providing a processing capacity of 200 tpd, plus related equipment. This configuration delivers capacity to generate 17.5 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The refurbishment project targets stable combustion and operation over the long term through replacement of the plant’s aging core components, including equipment involved in combustion, combustion gas cooling, flue gas treatment, waste heat recovery, ventilation and ash removal, as well as electrical instrumentation.

In addition, the thermal efficiency of the boiler will be enhanced through adoption of EGR-PLUS®(Note2), a new combustion control system using an exhaust gas recirculation fan. Power generation capacity will be increased by replacing the steam-type soot blower, which removes dust adhering to the boiler pipes, with a pressure wave-type unit. The adoption of high-efficiency electrical equipment, combined with optimized combustion control logic enabled by upgrading of the distributed control system (DCS), will reduce annual carbon emissions by more than 8%, helping to curb global warming and realize a carbon-neutral society.

In recent years, waste incineration facilities in Japan have increasingly been undergoing refurbishment to extend their service life and reduce their impact on the global environment. Today, this trend is accelerating further following establishment of a subsidy program(Note3) by the Ministry of the Environment to support the adoption of advanced equipment at the nation’s waste management facilities.

MHIEC succeeded to MHI’s environmental protection business in 2008, taking over its accumulated technological development capabilities in environmental protection systems and its abundant expertise in the construction and operation of waste management facilities both in Japan and overseas. Based on this strong track record, MHIEC is well positioned to propose and provide comprehensive solutions encompassing all aspects from plant construction to operation.

Going forward, on the strength of this record and boosted by this latest contract, MHIEC will aim for further orders expansion through proactive proposals of solutions for improving the energy efficiency and maintaining or enhancing the operational stability of existing waste management plants and reducing their maintenance and other lifecycle costs.

• 1A stoker incinerator is the most widely adopted type of furnace used in waste-to-energy plants. Waste is combusted as it moves along on a fire grate made of heat-resistant castings.
• 2Exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is a technology whereby the exhaust gas emitted from an incinerator is recirculated to the combustion chamber, resulting in complete combustion that reduces nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. MHIEC’s EGR-PLUS® is a system adopting the newest combustion control configuration integrating EGR technology and low-air-ratio combustion technology (λ = 1.2), resulting in stable mitigation of environmental impact and increased volume of marketable electricity.
• 3This program is available to municipal governments that seek to extend the service life of their waste management facilities and/or implement measures against global warming through projects focused on enhancing the efficiency of such facilities – which fall under the Ministry of the Environment’s administration – as a way of mitigating impact of the waste management sector on global warming. The subsidies cover between one-third and one-half of the costs of projects that will contribute to reducing carbon emissions through adoption of advanced equipment, or projects that will promote the realization of a recycling-based society.