Japan’s NSSMC expands biomass use

OREANDA-NEWS. Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal (NSSMC) is expanding biomass usage for in-house power generation in a bid to cut emissions and promote the regional wood industry.

The country's renewable energy feed-in-tariff (Fit) has also prompted increased biomass throughputs. NSSMC has started full operations at a 330MW on-site unit co-fired by wood chips and coal at its Oita steelworks in southern Oita prefecture. The company aims to use 12,000 t/yr of domestically sourced wood chips.

And NSSMC plans to boost wood-chip consumption to 48,000 t/yr from just 7,000 t/yr by June, through the upgrade of a 149MW unit, co-fired with coal, at its Kamaishi works in northern Iwate prefecture.

Japanese firms are increasingly focused on the biomass sector, which has seen an investment surge since its inclusion in the Fit scheme in 2012. The country's biomass consumption in January-November last yeat rose by 6.7pc to 2mn t compared with the same period of 2013, according to the latest data from the ministry of economy, trade and industry.