Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has reached a basic agreement with BW Offshore Limited, one of the world’s leading FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) contractors, to collaborate in the marketing of FPSO for liquefied natural gas (LNG). The two companies plan to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU). The collaboration of the two companies aims to improve the position from which to propose LNG-FPSO to potential customers throughout the world by combining their expertise - MHI’s knowhow, garnered through the experience of constructing numerous LNG carriers and offshore structures, and BW Offshore’s significant experience with FPSO projects. Through the effective sharing of roles, the two companies will accelerate its marketing activities and are well positioned to execute their first LNG-FPSO project.

The agreement outlines the joint development of design and joint marketing activities, mainly targeting LNG-FPSO projects, with around two million tons per annum (MTPA) production capacity. Specifically, MHI will take charge of the vessel’s hull and LNG storage tank portion and BW Offshore among others will be responsible for the pretreatment and liquefaction facilities and production and mooring solutions. By combining the strengths of the two companies, an LNG-FPSO that scrupulously responds to customer needs becomes possible to propose as a package. For LNG storage tanks, MHI will propose MOSS type spherical tanks, in which the company has proven experience through the delivery of numerous LNG carriers and whose reliability and economical efficiency have already been confirmed.

The origin of BW Offshore goes back to the early 1980s, when it started business as a department of Bergesen d.y., a world leading shipping company. The company was the first to operate a LPG (liquefied petroleum gas)-FPSO with the unit “Berge Sisar” in Angola, receiving first gas in 1982. BW Offshore’s main shareholder is BW Group, one of the world’s leading maritime groups in the tanker, gas and offshore segments. BW Offshore has completed 14 FPSO projects and delivered more than 50 turrets and offshore terminals to date.

While demand for LNG is increasingly being appreciated as an energy source that emits less carbon dioxide (CO2), one of greenhouse-effect gases, compared with other fossil fuels, its production and development is moving to offshore gas fields, either large scale or small and medium “stranded” fields, which have been discovered, but remain untapped. As a result, LNG-FPSO, which can eliminate long pipeline and offers facility moving capability, is drawing much attention. At present, gas development projects using LNG-FPSO are either planned or being discussed on offshore sites in many countries, including Australia, Indonesia and Brazil.

In tandem with the aforementioned plans, submission of proposals and bidding by shipbuilding and plant engineering companies with strong LNG production facilities have become brisk. Spurred by the collaboration agreement with BW Offshore, MHI will further strengthen its LNG-FPSO marketing activities, leveraging the expertise of the two companies.

Source: http://www.mhi.co.jp/en/news/story/1003311342.html

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has completed its first unit of the “STG (Super Turbo Generating) System,” a marine-use, high-efficiency, combined power generation system that utilizes waste heat and the exhaust gas from diesel engines. Incorporating the company’s proprietary controlling system, which enables optimized power generation by both exhaust-gas power and steam turbines, the STG System reduces the fuel cost of vessels by 10%, effectively recovers exhaust gas energy and ultimately contributes to efforts to prevent global warming. The STG System is the most recent type of the company’s MERS (Mitsubishi Energy Recovery System) that utilizes waste energy from marine diesels for power generation.

The first STG System will be installed in a container vessel currently being built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. of Korea, and will be delivered to A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S, a Danish shipping company, in 2011. Celebrating the completion of the first unit, a ceremony was held today at the Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works of MHI.

[First unit of STG System - Most recent type of MERS]

MHI has already received orders for 38 units of the STG System and at present is also receiving many business inquiries for the same. Many of these orders and inquiries are for use on container vessels, which carry numerous energy-consuming refrigeration/chilling container units. With the successful completion of the first unit, MHI plans to reinforce its marketing activities targeting newly-built vessels.

The STG System comprises an exhaust gas power turbine, an economizer (exhaust gas boiler), a steam turbine, a generator, a reduction gear box and an SSS (synchronous self-shifting) clutch and control system. MHI leverages its technological expertise as a major shipbuilding company handling essential components for marine-use waste energy recovery systems such as diesel engines, turbochargers, steam turbines and boilers for the new, energy-saving STG System.

Going forward MHI continues to develop innovative and environmentally-friendly products and systems enabled by the company’s comprehensive technology and know-how, to propose new and better solutions to customers in the shipbuilding market.

Source: http://www.mhi.co.jp/en/news/story/1003301341.html

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has established a Representative Office in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The launch of the Abu Dhabi Representative Office, which begins operations on April 1, is aimed at increasing the company’s business opportunities in Abu Dhabi, which is currently promoting large-scale renewable energy development projects and an environment-friendly social infrastructure leveraging its revenues from petroleum resources. In the near term, MHI will mainly target projects involving carbon capture and storage (CCS) coupled with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and next-generation transportation systems. The new office will function as a base for dynamic, locally tailored information gathering and business development activities.

This will be MHI’s second representative office in the Persian Gulf region, joining the Middle East Office in Dubai. The Abu Dhabi Office will initially be located in Mohammed Bin Zayed City, a free zone, and in the future will move to Masdar City*1, which is now under construction. Kinya Watanabe, General Manager of the Strategic Business Development Office for the UAE at MHI’s Machinery & Steel Structures Headquarters, has been appointed representative of the new office. Operations at the new office, which will also have two local employees, will get under way with support from head office staff dispatched from Japan.

MHI established the Strategic Business Development Office for the UAE at its main office in Tokyo in October 2009 in a quest to strengthen its UAE market development activities, especially in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Since taking this move the company has been pursuing increased opportunities to contribute to Abu Dhabi’s development and to expand its own business in the region, including projects like the Masdar Initiative, a strategic economic development program with environmental and sustainability priorities that Abu Dhabi is vigorously promoting, and urban infrastructure development projects designed to attract the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)*2 to Abu Dhabi.

To smoothly and effectively implement the company’s initiatives relating to such projects, MHI opted to conduct locally based activities from the early stages. With establishment of its new office, the company will enhance its capability to promptly grasp the local situation and local needs and respond accordingly to customers such as the Abu Dhabi government and public organizations, while also boosting the company’s presence in Abu Dhabi.

CCS-EOR involves technologies enabling effective recovery of oil by injecting the oil layer with carbon dioxide (CO2), which is separated and recovered from flue gas emitted from power generation plants and other sources. These technologies are expected to contribute to Abu Dhabi, a country rich in oil resources, significantly. Other products and technologies the company plans to propose to Abu Dhabi include: key next-generation transportation systems such as intelligent transport systems (ITS) and light-rail transit (LRT); infrastructure for next-generation transportation modes such as electric vehicles; and renewable energy power generation systems such as wind power and photovoltaic systems. Going forward MHI will further intensify communication with local customers and promote the development of business opportunities.

Source: http://www.mhi.co.jp/en/news/story/1003291340.html

Kobe Steel, Ltd. announces that it has been awarded a contract to supply a MIDREX® Direct Reduction Plant with an annual capacity of 1.5 million metric tons to Bahrain’s United Steel Company (SULB). The contract was signed in Bahrain on March 30.

Under the full turnkey project, Kobe Steel is responsible for the design, equipment supply, construction, and start-up of the facility, which will make direct reduced iron. Direct reduced iron (DRI) is used as a supplement or substitute for high-quality scrap in electric steelmaking. The value of the order was not disclosed.

This is the second recent order for a MIDREX Plant for the Kobe Steel Group. In December last year, Midrex Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kobe Steel, received a contract to supply MIDREX technology for a plant in India.

SULB’s direct reduction plant will be constructed in the Hidd Industrial Area in Bahrain adjacent to an iron ore pellet plant that Kobe Steel construction for Gulf Industrial Investment Co.(E.C.). With a capacity of 6 million metric tons a year, the plant went into operation in January 2010.

Kobe Steel anticipates that the direct reduction plant contract will become effective in July 2010. The contract calls for the plant to be completed 30 months after the contract becomes effective. On this schedule, start up of the facility is aimed for early 2013.

SULB is a joint venture between Foulath in Bahrain and Yamato Kogyo Co., Ltd. in Japan. The SULB steel complex will also contain a melt shop and a heavy section rolling mill to be supplied by SMS Concast AG of Switzerland, SMS Meer GmBH of Germany, and Samsung Engineering Co., Ltd. of South Korea.

World direct reduced iron production reached a record high of 68 million metric tons in 2008. Although world production in 2009 was lower, it is on an upward trend in 2010. Kobe Steel and Midrex are working to expand the use of the MIDREX Direct Reduction Process and the next-generation ITmk3® ironmaking process to provide steelmakers with a stable source of clean iron units.

Source: http://www.kobelco.co.jp/english/topics/2010/03/1183115_9226.html

The Chancellor failed to mention that, in addition to the 1.0 ppl duty increase from 1 April, he has already taken measures to claw back a duty incentive provided to the refiners for biofuels production. This latter measure will result in an increase to the cost of product by up to 1.0 ppl also from 1 April.

Thus the real increase to the motorist at the pump will be 2.0 ppl plus the VAT multiplier equating to around 2.35 ppl – some 135% more than might have been perceived from his speech to the House.

This size of increase does not sit well with his promise that “this is a Budget to secure recovery…” especially with further duty increases now advised for 1 October 2010 and 1 January 2011.

Source:http://www.rmif.co.uk/index.php?op=news&id=35

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has completed a mass production system for lightweight, high-strength “hollow-head” engine valves employing proprietary forging technology that enables hole-forming from the valve stem to head in one process. The new forging technology was achieved based on the company’s unique production knowhow in hollow valves for aircraft engines. With hollow valve heads, overall valve weight can be reduced by up to 20% compared with solid valves. The technology has also cut hollow-head valve production costs significantly. MHI expects demand for this valve type to increase going forward, and is targeting shipments of 1.5 million units in 2014, mainly for the automobile industry as a key measure to improve fuel efficiency as CO2 emission controls become increasingly tighter worldwide.

With MHI’s hollow-head valve production technology (patents pending in Japan and abroad), the hollow is formed during the forging process; no equipment is required other than the forging press. The elimination of conventional boring by drill or electric spark machining enables low-cost mass production. MHI developed this machining method jointly with Yoshimura Company of Nagoya, based on MHI technology for producing hollow valves for aircraft engines. Hyoji Yoshimura, president of the company, is a former MHI employee.

As MHI’s production method performs consecutive forming of the hollow-head valve from cylindrical metal material mainly during cold-forging, a significant reduction in processing time is achieved. To realize maximum benefit from hollow valves, the company analyzed various factors - shape of the hollow, valve strength, generated stress, etc. - and studied how to form shapes that conventional machines have been unable to form.

Because hollow valves can add to cooling efficiency through improved thermal conductivity by encapsulating sodium (natrium) in the hollow, the heat resistance of exhaust valves can also be increased, enabling accommodation of the higher exhaust temperatures associated with high-efficiency engine combustion. Coupled with reduced friction loss due to weight reduction, hollow valves can boost fuel efficiency substantially, thereby contributing to reduced CO2 emissions.

MHI’s Machine Tool Division has already established a production structure capable of producing 25,000 hollow-head valves per month. It has also started shipments of samples mainly to automobile manufacturers, and launched development of customized products reflecting the diversified needs of users and the results of their evaluation testing.

As a measure to combat global warming, CO2 emission controls, especially for automobiles, are becoming more stringent. In response, automobile manufacturers around the world are fiercely competing to develop more fuel-efficient cars and electric vehicles. In parallel with these initiatives, stepped-up efforts are being made to reduce auto engine weight further, lower friction loss and enhance combustion efficiency.

MHI views hollow-head valves as a differentiated product that can contribute largely to enhancement of automobile engine efficiency. Going forward the company will aggressively conduct marketing activities of the new valves by offering a lineup of metals - ranging from heat-resistant steel to nickel alloy - for not only the automobile industry but other potential users as well.

Source: http://www.mhi.co.jp/en/news/story/1003241339.html

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has shipped a steam turbine generator with a rated output of 48.3 MW from its Kobe Works to the Daejeon Southwest Mass Energy Facility Project currently underway in Daejeon, Korea.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. the general contractor overseeing construction of the project’s power plant placed an order for the steam turbine generator in February 2008. Once on-site testing is completed, the steam turbine generator will be delivered to the Korea National Housing Corporation, the end client. The power plant will provide heat and power to new residential areas now under construction, mainly supplying steam for the unique underfloor heating system referred to in Korea as ondol.

The Korean government has responded to global environmental and energy concerns with a long-term plan geared toward urban areas that promotes natural gas-fueled combined heat and power supply systems. This project under the Korea National Housing Corporation is part of a national effort to reduce air pollution and the emissions of green house gases that cause global warming.

Since the launch of its first industrial steam turbine in 1956, Kawasaki has established a proven track record that includes the delivery of over 330 steam turbine units worldwide. Now with this latest delivery, Kawasaki has supplied a total 34 steam turbine units for power generation applications to Korea.

Today’s growing demand for distributed power generation systems continues to fuel sales at Kawasaki as it moves forward to bring its energy and environmental business to new heights.

Source: http://www.khi.co.jp/ba/2010data/ba_c3100323_1.html

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has received an order for a 29.7 MW steam turbine generator from Korean steel manufacturer, POSCO. The steam turbine generator will be delivered to POSCO’s Gwangyang Steel Works in June 2011.

The steam turbine generator will be installed in a coke dry quencher (CDQ*). The CDQ quenches red-hot coke, dried by distillation in a coke oven, with inert gas and recovers sensible heat using a boiler to produce steam for power generation.

Kawasaki launched its first industrial steam turbine in 1956. Since then it has established a track record that includes the delivery of over 330 steam turbine units, including 34 shipped to Korea. This latest order is a testament to the superior performance and lifecycle cost of Kawasaki steam turbines as well as Kawasaki’s reliable services and proven track record.

Kawasaki is continuing to expand sales of its highly efficient power generation systems boasting a smaller environmental footprint as it moves forward to bring its energy and environmental business to new heights.

*A CDQ quenches red-hot coke (dried by distillation in a coke oven) with inert gases circulating in a quenching chamber. The CDQ quenching process occurs in a completely air-tight environment. The thermal energy, which would otherwise dissipate into the ambient environment as vapor with conventional wet quenching methods, can be recovered by the CDQ and used to generate electric power.

Source: http://www.khi.co.jp/ba/2010data/ba_c3100318_1.html

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has delivered a top pressure recovery turbine (TRT) generating system with a capacity of 9,840 kW to Sumitomo Metals (Kokura), Ltd. The system will be used to replace Sumitomo Metals’ aging TRT generating system currently employed in its second blast furnace in order to boost capacity. The new system harnesses the full power of Kawasaki’s state-of-the-art technology to enhance efficiency.

The TRT generating system is driven by exhaust gas pressure generated from the steelworks’ blast furnace which is converted into electricity via a turbine. This energy-saving system also features noise reduction and dust removal functions that work while gas passes through the turbine. Since TRT generating systems are equipped with a range of environmentally friendly features, they have been adopted for all large blast furnaces in Japan.

The Kawasaki TRT generating system is unique. It employs the turbine’s variable stator blades to control the blast furnace’s top pressure. Instead of using the conventional governor valve to control top pressure, this system automatically adjusts the angle of the blades to control the gas flow rate from the blast furnace. Despite the blast furnace’s constantly changing gas flow rate and pressure, this method delivers efficient, low-noise power generation with minimal energy loss.

Kawasaki is a leading manufacturer of TRT generation systems and has supplied a total of 46 units worldwide. That total includes 26 in Japan and 20 overseas, one of which boasted the world’s largest output of 34,480 kW at the time of delivery.

Kawasaki continues to move forward with a focus on providing TRT generation systems and other energy efficient products that make a smaller environmental footprint.

Source: http://www.khi.co.jp/ba/2010data/ba_c3100316_1.html

Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation today launched the Queen Busan bulk carrier for San-E Maritime Corporation at its Kobe Shipyard. The carrier, identified as Kawasaki hull No.1622 and the 31st 55,100DWT bulk carrier developed by Kawasaki Shipbuilding, will be delivered in May 2010 after outfitting at the quay of the Shipyard.

The 189.9 m vessel has a flush deck with forecastle and five holds that are designed for optimum transport of grains, coals, ores and steel products. A new proprietary bow designed to reduce wave resistance allows the ship to operate with less fuel. Four 30 ton deck cranes are installed in the center in between hatch covers to enable cargo loading and unloading in ports where no cargo handling facilities are available.

Source: http://www.khi.co.jp/ba/2010data/ba_c3100311_1.html