A plant for converting sewage sludge into fuel was completed on March 22 at Hiroshima City, Japan, and it will begin commercial operation on April 1. The facility can convert about 28,000 tons of sludge, nearly half of the annual sludge generated by Hiroshima City, into about 4,500 tons of carbonized fuel annually.
The special purpose company Biocoal Hiroshima-West, formed by the wholesale electric power company J-Power and three other companies, built the plant. The fuel produced by the plant is owned by Hiroshima City and will be sold to Biocoal Hiroshima-West. The fuel will then be purchased by J-Power, transported to a J-Power coal-fired power plant and burned with coal.
At the completion ceremony held on March 22, Masahiro Mukai, director general of Hiroshima City’s sewerage bureau, said, “We believe that this will make a large contribution to controlling global warming. We hope that it will spread from Hiroshima to throughout the country.”
