Ajinomoto Supplies Production Residue to Biomass Power Station as Fuel

Humus : Copyright Ajinomoto Co.

On June 22, 2011, Ajinomoto Co., a major Japanese food and seasonings manufacturer, announced that in March, 2011, it began supplying Kawasaki Biomass Power Station (Kawasaki Ward, Kawasaki City) with soybean residue (humus) generated in the production process of liquid seasonings, the main products manufactured at its Kawasaki Plant (Kawasaki Ward, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture).

The main ingredients of this liquid seasonings are amino acids extracted from breaking down soybean vegetable protein, and the residue from this is called humus. Humus contains a substantial quantity of salt and water, which has made it difficult for humus to be used as fuel. Now, an improved filtering technology is able to successfully reduce the salt density and water quantity, enabling the use of humus as fuel.

Humus is carbon-neutral, and without moisture it has the same heat as coal. Humus is generated as planned according to the production schedule at Kawasaki Plant, enabling a stable supply of humus.

Kawasaki Biomass Electric Power Plant began operating in February 2011, as an electric power station using woody biomass as fuel. The 33,000 kilowatt station, a joint project of Sumitomo Joint Electric Power Co., Sumitomo Forestry Co. and Furuhashi EPO Corp., is Japan's largest power station fueled entirely by biomass, and uses wood resources collected from all over the Kanto region. The plant reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 120,000 tons per year. The generated power is supplied to Tokyo Electric Power Co. and other companies.

Posted: 2011/09/16 06:00:16 AM