The City of Yokohama, Tokyo Gas, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) and MHI Environmental & Chemical Engineering (MHIEC) have launched a pioneering demonstration experiment aimed at capturing and utilizing CO2 emissions from a local waste-to-energy plant.
The project, based in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, is the first of its kind in Japan and involves the separation and capture of CO2 from plant flue gas, which is then transported to a methanation facility for reuse. This novel approach to carbon capture and utilization (CCU) also aims to introduce and expand the use of e-methane.
This groundbreaking initiative was agreed upon by Yokohama and Tokyo Gas in 2022, alongside MHI and MHIEC. With trial operations for all equipment now complete, the partners are launching the project, which will utilize MHI’s CO2 separation and capture system at the Tsurumi Plant.
The captured CO2 will be transported to the Tokyo Gas Yokohama Techno Station to be used in methanation, marking a unique instance in Japan where CO2 from a waste-to-energy plant is moved to a different location for such use.
Moreover, the methanation facility being utilized for this demonstration operates on 100% renewable energy, sourced from electric power generated at waste-to-energy plants in Yokohama.
In the future, the partners aim to broaden the use of captured CO2 beyond methanation facilities. They also plan to implement measures for visualizing the CO2 value chain, including tracking the amount of CO2 collected and its transport destination.