Japan-headed JFE Engineering Corporation, the engineering and construction arm JFE Group has received an order for the construction of a shaft-type gasifying and direct melting furnace from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in the Republic of Singapore. The 11.5 tonne-per-day capacity demonstration plant will use waste and biomass and is the first-of-its-kind in Southeast Asia outside of Japan.
According to a statement, the order comes at the back of a joint Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) in the area of “Development of Enhanced Utilisation Methodologies for Slagging Gasification” which was concluded in July last year. The value of the order remains undisclosed.
After construction of the single unit 11.5 tonne per day capacity plant, the project will advance to the demonstration stage where JFE Engineering and NTU will attempt to achieve the objectives established by the RCA.
Scheduled for completion during 2018, JFE Engineering and NTU will jointly aim to verify the following points during the plant demonstration:
- Usage of biomass fuel as substitute for coal coke
- Exploration and testing of diverse waste treatment
- Usage of slag from the direct melting gasification process
According to JFE Engineering, one of the main advantages of the gasifying and direct melting furnace is its ability to produce slag, metal and other resources without the discharge of bottom ash through the gasification and melting of the waste at very high temperatures.
Singapore is actively promoting efforts to reduce the volume of residues which require final landfill disposal, as Singapore is a country with a relatively limited land area. The gasifying and direct melting furnace has attracted keen interest in Singapore as a next-generation waste treatment technology capable of achieving a dramatic reduction of residues requiring landfill disposal.
This will be the first project applying the shaft-type gasifying and direct melting furnace in Southeast Asia. However, a large number of gasifying and direct melting furnaces utilising JFE Engineering’s original technology has been introduced in Japan; most of them with a record of stable operation in excess of a decade.
Backed by this track record and know-how, JFE Engineering was able to achieve this recent order through the preparation of a proposal in line with NTU’s Research and Development objectives towards the recovery of resources and the reduction of residues sent to final disposal at landfills through the usage of an environmentally friendly technology.
