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Industries (MHI) has signed a license agreement for carbon dioxide (CO2)
recovery technology with Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC), a manufacturer
of fertilizers and petrochemicals in Bahrain. GPIC will use the technology to
recover CO2 from flue gas emitted at its existing
petrochemical plant and utilize the captured CO2
to increase urea and methanol production. The CO2
recovery plant is slated for completion in January 2010. |
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The
technology will recover CO2 by absorbing it into
a proprietary solvent known as KS-1, which MHI jointly developed with Kansai Electric
Power Company, Inc. The recovery units are among the world’s most efficient
of their type, capable of capturing 450 tons of CO2
per day and some 90% of the CO2 in flue gas. The
technology will also be used to boost production at a urea fertilizer plant delivered
by MHI to GPIC in 1998.
In addition to
urea production, CO2 recovery technology can be
used for chemical applications, such as production of methanol and dimethyl ether
and, in the food and beverage industries, production of carbonated beverages and
dry ice. Recovered CO2 can also be injected into
low-yield oil reservoirs to help extraction, an application known as Enhanced
Oil Recovery (EOR). Due to recent oil price surges, demand for EOR has been rising
sharply.
MHI now intends to promote its
large scale CO2 recovery facilities for EOR applications,
as well as for chemical
plant applications. |
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In December 2007, Japan’s Ministry
of Land, Infrastructure and Transport authorized Nippon Oil to
use the Eco Rail Mark for using rail transportation in an environmentally responsible
way.
It is a fact that rail transportation
offers lower CO2 emissions per mile than trucking.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport introduced the Eco Rail Mark
system in April 2005 to reduce the environmental impact of distribution activities.
The mark, which is granted either for products or for companies that actively
use rail transportation, reminds consumers that rail transportation of freight
produces less CO2 than trucking, and encourages
concerned shoppers to choose products delivered by rail. Currently, 13 products
and 36 companies have received the mark, with Nippon Oil being the first company
in the petroleum industry to be authorized. |
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Kirin Beverage, a subsidiary
of Kirin Holdings, has also received the Eco Rail Mark, as has
Mitsubishi Electric’s Living Environment & Digital
Media Equipment Group.
Nippon Oil, which alone accounts for around
50% of all products transported in rail tank cars by Japan’s petroleum industry,
has also helped to improve transportation efficiency and reduce energy consumption
by using larger rail tank cars. It is currently replacing existing 43-ton tankers
with 45-ton versions. It plans to attach Eco Rail Marks to all 343 rail tank cars
used at its Negishi, Muroran and Sendai Refineries. |
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The Germany-based Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) was established in 1993 to encourage sustainable management of
forests by certifying that they are appropriately managed from an environmental,
economic and social perspective, and by operating a labeling system for wood and
wood products from certified forests.
On November 6, 2007, Mitsubishi Paper
Mills and Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., Ltd. held a ceremony in
the town of Iwaizumi-cho together with the town’s authorities to mark the
signing of an agreement establishing a support system for |
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FSC-certified forests.
The new system aims to promote FSC certification, foster the development of forestry
in Japan and help to develop CO2 sinks. By area,
Iwaizumi-cho, located in Iwate Prefecture, is the biggest town on Japan’s
main island of Honshu, with some 93% of the municipality covered by forest.
Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management, which obtained
ISO 14001 certification in March 2003 and is regarded as an environmentally responsible
company, will help Iwaizumi-cho with part of the costs of managing its approximately
5,300 hectares of FSC-certified forest, and also use the forest for environmental
education and staff recreation. Iwaizumi-cho, in turn, will work to develop the
forest environmentally and economically. Finally, Mitsubishi Paper Mills will
use pruning timber and other low-grade materials resulting from this development
to manufacture FSC-certified paper. |
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Since time immemorial, humans have
tried to understand the forces that shape our weather. Although it is still not
fully understood, rapidly advancing technology has helped scientists shed light
on many of its mechanisms, and how they affect us. From November 20, 2007 to March
30, 2008, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) gave elementary school
and junior high school students a torrent of fascinating information on this topic
at its Mitsubishi Minatomirai Industrial Museum in Yokohama, just outside Tokyo.
MHI established the museum in 1994 to inspire youngsters about science and technology.
Through three zones, the exhibition explored
weather as viewed from the ground, from the air and from space. In the first zone,
a ceiling-mounted screen displayed computer animations of common weather phenomena
as we normally see them, including a blue sky, clouds, rain and lightning. |
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second zone, designed to let visitors view the weather as if floating in the air,
explored cloud formation and the mechanisms that cause rain, snow, fog, thunder
and storms. At special interactive stations, students could study a single raindrop
up close and create clouds and tornadoes. They could also explore the structure
of a typhoon through a three dimensional model.
In
the final zone, visitors explored the Earth’s weather as seen from space,
using images from the Himawari weather satellite, panel displays and other materials
providing easy-to-understand explanations. |
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Ironically, in May 2007
an ominous sign of global warming brought great rewards to scientists worldwide.
In the melting Siberian permafrost, a Siberian reindeer herder came across the
best-preserved mammoth specimen ever found.
Frozen in the ice 37,000 years ago at the
tender age of six months, little Lyuba, named after the discoverer’s wife,
is far from a lumbering, hairy giant. She weighs in at 50 kg, is only 120 cm long
and lacks tusks. Even so, the tiny calf attracted thousands of visitors to a special
exhibition in Tokyo’s Marunouchi Building from early January to early February.
The exhibition, organized by The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jikei University School of Medicine and the National Science Museum, received special support
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by Mitsubishi Estate,
who provided building space and additional assistance.
After a photo exhibition about the find and
the history of mammoths, who once roamed Europe, Africa, Asia and North America,
visitors marveled at the nearly perfectly preserved specimen. Thanks to cutting-edge
tomography scanning by Jikei University School of Medicine, where Lyuba was brought
after the discovery, visitors could also see 3D images of the calf’s interior.
Mammoths are thought to have existed as |
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as 10,000 years ago, and scientists hope Lyuba can help explain the mystery of why they disappeared. But,
to the exhibition’s visitors, she certainly brought a bit of mystery too—a
glimpse of a world long gone... |
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In November 2007, NYK
and two wholly owned subsidiaries, Japan Marine Science Inc. and NYK Cruises Co.
Ltd., received a certificate of gratitude from Ryutaro Ohtsuka, president of the
National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), for their participation in
maritime research conducted by Masayuki Kunugi, a senior researcher at the institute.
NIES, founded in 1974, is one of Japan’s foremost environmental research
institutions.
Mr. Kunugi studies marine contamination caused
by hazardous chemical substances, mainly agricultural and other chemicals targeted
by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
Since 2000, the NYK Group has been participating in research that
involves analyzing seawater samples taken around tankers, containerships and cruise
ships navigating the world’s waterways. So far, more than 1,000 seawater
samples have been collected from some 500 sites.
The NYK Group will continue to participate in this type of research
to help lower the environmental impact of marine freight. |
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