Regional

Mitsubishi Heavy Meets Target at Bioethanol Pilot Plant

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has achieved the target performance of over 99.5vol% ethanol purity at a pilot plant for membrane dehydration systems (MMDS®: Mitsubishi Membrane Dehydration System) installed at MHI's Nagasaki Carbon Neutral Park within the Nagasaki District Research & Innovation Center, which meets domestic fuel standards. Bioethanol is gaining attention as a clean fuel alternative to gasoline and as a raw material for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). However, in order to be used as fuel, the removal of moisture contained in bioethanol during the final stage of manufacturing (dehydration) is essential, and the dehydration process consumes a significant amount of energy. MMDS® aims to optimize the process by replacing the conventional method with a molecular sieve separation method(Note), thereby achieving high-efficiency manufacturing while significantly reducing energy consumption by…