Thoughts about the future energy scenario for a Japanese company
- an interview with Mr Hirofumi Sugimura, General Manager, Energy Planning Department, Daio Paper Corporation - at 34,000 feet above Europe somewhere between Stockholm and Brussels one evening in mid November 2008.
by Peter Laursen, License & Partner Manager, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund
What kind of company is Daio Paper?
“Daio Paper Corporation is Japan’s third largest paper manufacturer, and it was founded in 1943. Today, we have two paper mills; one plant in Mishima and one plant in Kani with a total production capacity of 4.7 million tonnes of pulp and paper. We employ 3,000 people and our annual turnover is 400 billion Yen equal to 3.3 billion Euro”.
How much energy do you consume at Daio Paper?
“For our production at our two facilities, we produce a total of 450 MW electric power and 1000 tonnes of steam per hour, from a total steam generation capacity of approximately 4000 tonnes per hour.”
What energy sources do you have?
“Today, we are mainly reliant on fossil fuels and more than 55 % of our energy comes from coal. Otherwise, we use heavy oil and natural gas. We have our own power generation facilities that supply power and process steam to our facilities.”
How do you see the scenario for Daio Paper in the future?
“Thirty years ago Daio Paper was like many other companies mainly reliant on oil for its energy supply. After the oil crisis in the seventies the Japanese government recommended the Japanese companies to shift to coal to become less dependent on oil from the Middle East. Japan has neither oil nor gas from own fields and was thus very dependent on oil from the Middle East. So we changed our energy policy, and today we are mainly dependent on coal.
Now - with the climate change high on the agenda also for the Japanese government and the Japanese companies - we need to change to CO2 neutral fuels and become less dependent on coal and other fossil fuels.”
What strategy have you laid out for Daio Paper’s future energy supply?
“Our production is very energy intensive, and energy is the basis for our manufacturing. We have, of course, initiated energy saving programmes to optimize our production and replace old inefficient equipment and processes with new ‘lean’ and more efficient equipment and processes. At the same time we launched a programme to replace fossil fuel for our lime kilns. In the lime kilns we bake lime so that it can be used in the pulp manufacturing process to make kraft pulp. The process is highly energy intensive and in our case requires vast amounts of heavy oil. Five years ago we started to search for energy conversion technologies that could substitute the heavy oil with CO2 neutral fuel. We are the first paper company in Japan that has initiated and implemented such an energy conversion programme. With the success of the new gasification plant we will implement this to other lime kilns and maybe other processes as well.“
What is the status of you new gasification plant?
“The new plant is located at our Kani-Works plant in Kani-shi, Gifu Prefecture. The facility is constructed by JFE Environmental Solutions. We began construction of the plant in early 2008, and it is now in its finishing stage. All trial runs have been successful, and we are now in the final commissioning stage; expected handover is by end November 2008.”
How did you select the Babcock & Wilcox Vølund gasification process for your Kani plant?
“We became aware of the technology through JFE Environmental Solutions, your licensee in Japan, as they constructed the first co-generation plant in Japan based on updraft gasification. The idea of using the gasifier reactor as a gas source that generates a syngas from wood chips to fuel the lime kiln was borne during 2006, and we visited your Harboøre plant in Denmark.
This convinced us that this technology could be part of our strategy. Through consultation with JFE and BWV we developed the idea of a pilot plant through 2007. It is the first time this is used in a paper plant and a completely new application in Japan, and it has been funded by the Japanese government.”
How do you see energy conversion as the new gasification plant can contribute to your company’s diversion strategy?
“It is a strategic goal of Daio Paper to reduce our dependency on fossil fuel for the production and to reduce our green house gas (GHG) emission. At the same time we aim at reducing our energy costs.
The new plant is an example of energy conversion where we can suddenly use biomass as a fuel in our manufacturing process. The capacity of the new plant is 12 MW, and this converts into CO2 savings of approximately 21,500 tonnes per year. A significant contribution to reduction of our annual CO2 emission of 3 million tonnes per year.”
Postscript: During the flight we flew a distance of 1287 kilometres in a Boeing 737-600 and burned 4.7 tonnes of jet fuel equivalent to 0.1466 tonnes of CO2 per passenger.
About JFE Environmental Solutions Co.
JFE Environmental Solutions Co. is a long-time partner with Babcock & Wilcox Vølund and our relationship goes back more than 35 years. Both companies have various mutual agreements between them for utilizing their novel proprietary technologies. JFE Environmental Solutions and Babcock & Wilcox Vølund will make every effort to promote biomass gasification and continue to drive the market as leading companies in this business field.
Contact
For further information please contact:
License & Partner Manager
Peter Laursen
Tel.: +45 2462 4729
Mr Hirofumi Sugimura
General Manager - Energy Planning Department
Daio Paper Corporation
