Delivery Complete of SDA Pitch-Fired Power Plant
to Asahi Kasei Chemicals Mizushima Works

In July 2009, MHI completed the smooth delivery of an SDA pitch-fired power plant (a 400 t/h boiler and a 50 MW steam turbine) for Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corporation and Zeon Corporation, and a grand completion ceremony was held in September.

Residual oil (pitch), produced through the solvent de-asphalting process (SDA) newly set up by Nippon Petroleum Refining Co., Ltd. located in the same Mizushima industrial complex, will be used as boiler fuel, cutting use of conventional heavy fuel oil and achieving energy conservation.
This will also allow Nippon Petroleum Refining to cut the volume of heavy oil fraction produced (for which demand is declining), and to cut costs by turning processed oil into heavy oil. These three different kinds of companies are cooperating by using their location in a groundbreaking business scheme that has created an ambitious energy conservation project.