(Abstract)

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries conducted a review of the “Fertilizer Regulation Act”, then in response to that, the “Act for Partial Revision of the Fertilizer Regulation Act” was established in December 2019. In addition to changing the name from the “Fertilizer Regulation Act” to the “Act on Quality Assurance, etc., of Fertilizers,” there were also major revisions such as a relaxation of the compounding rules and changes of the labeling rules. The background of these revisions includes soil fertility decline and soil balance changes in farmland. This amendment aims to promote flexible fertilizer production which is useful for keeping soils in good condition and responds to the needs of farmers. The contents of the revisions can be roughly divided into items which is strengthened and relaxed. An example of the relaxation is a “revision of regulations concerning the compounding of fertilizers,” which enables free mixing. The relaxation of the compounding rules makes it possible to produce various fertilizers to suit requirements, so soil improvement becomes possible at a low cost.
　It is expected that this will lead to the expansion of the use of industrial by-products such as combustion ash from wood biomass power generation.

(Abstract)

Anammox has recently attracted much attention as a next-generation biological nitrogen removal technology for wastewater treatment. About 30 years have passed since the discovery of this anammox reaction, which has been called “epoch-making biological reaction” since the beginning. Our company has also spent a long time on research and development, and the practical application of nitrogen removal processes using the anammox reaction. With the support and guidance of many people both inside and outside the company, we have been able to establish original anammox technology. This technology will contribute to the achievement of the SDGs that our company is actively working on, including water quality improvement, energy conservation and low environmental load. We believe that it is our responsibility to put into practical use this technology that can contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, and to supply it to society. This paper describes our efforts from laboratory-scale basic research on anammox conducted in our company, to the recent demonstration project (B-DASH) with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

(Abstract)

The Miyazu Yoza Clean Center was completed in June 2020. This facility is a waste treatment facility for Miyazu City, Ine-cho and Yosano-cho in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture. It is composed of an energy recovery type waste treatment facility (Methane gasification facility +Waste incineration facility) and a material recycling promotion facility. In the methane gasification facility, waste to be fermented is mechanically selected from the waste that is to be incinerated and then subjected to methane fermentation. The methane gas generated is recovered and used as fuel in a gas engine generator. Of the electricity from the power generation, the electricity other than that consumed at the methane fermentation facility and the power generation facility is sold in external electricity sales using the feed-in tariff system.
　This paper reports an outline of the facility and the situation of operations.

(Abstract)

In waste treatment plants from now on, appropriate waste treatment must be continued as previously whilst also dealing with a labor shortage due to the aging population, decreasing birth rate and the fall in the working population. Our company aims to solve this problem by working on the further automation of plant operation. As one of those measures, our company developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that predicts combustion abnormalities and the manual operations necessary to avoid those abnormalities based on operation data and images of the combustion in an incinerator, in the same way as is performed by experienced operators. In the previous report, the AI system prediction performance and learning function effect were confirmed. This paper is a report of the demonstration test results for automatic combustion control using the prediction results from the AI system. By implementing automatic operation using the prediction results from the AI system, it was possible to make the manual operation of the incinerator almost unnecessary. In addition, it was confirmed that the combustion stability performance was equivalent to the case of operation by the operator.

(Abstract)

From the viewpoint of global warming prevention in recent years, legal systems aiming for the realization of a recycling-oriented society have been rapidly prepared and projects supporting the introduction of energy-saving equipment and the strengthening of environmental regulations have been promoted. Against this background, our company supplied a cogeneration facility using RPF as fuel to Company A, for the purpose of supplying steam and electric power for use in a plant. This paper provides an overview of the RPF cogeneration facility and reports the operation results.

(Abstract)

Our company developed technology for the on-site production of slaked lime (Ca(OH)2) from quicklime (CaO), for the purpose of reducing the expense for the chemicals required to remove the acid gas (HCl, SOx) contained in exhaust gas. A demonstration facility with a production capacity of 30 kg/h of slaked lime was constructed and demonstration testing was conducted for the series of processes from the production of slaked lime from quicklime to its grinding, storage and supply. After setting the operating conditions to get the appropriate amount of supply of water for slaking, the quicklime and water for slaking were mixed and agitated in the lime slaker for a sufficient period of time to accelerate the slaking reaction and drying. As a result, it was possible to produce slaked lime with the same water content as the commercially available slaked lime (special grade), and with the same or better BET specific surface area and pore volume as the commercially available slaked lime (special grade). Furthermore, by adding an organic agent to the water for slaking, it was possible to produce slaked lime with acid gas removing performance equivalent to that of commercially available high reactive slaked lime.