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In the past, general wastewater treatment in the food industry (and other industries in which organic compounds have a large environmental load) has been the activated sludge method, which uses aerobic microorganisms (activated sludge) to dissolve organic compounds through oxidation reactions. While this method is simple in structure, it has the defects to need high maintenance costs. One example is that the blower, which sends air to the treatment tank, consumes a large volume of electric power and another is the surplus sludge, which is generated in this process, takes high costs in treatment.
In order to cope with this problem, Toshiba developed and commercialized a unique UASB* methane fermentation and treatment system. This system has been developed based on an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor. UASB reactors are well-known of all equipment that makes methane fermentation. Methane fermentation systems use anaerobic microorganisms to dissolve organic compounds in water into biogas. This system has various excellent characteristics: low power consumption due to no need for aeration power, the ability to reduce industrial waste costs due to the small volume of surplus sludge generated, the ability to reduce the installation area because the high concentration of bacterial cells can make the reaction space smaller than aerobic equipment, and a unique two-stage UASB methane fermentation High-concentration Organic Wastewater Treatment Facility system, which achieves an even higher BOD removal rate.
To date, this system has been applied to wastewater treatment at many food manufacturing plants, including potato starch and delicatessen production plants. Toshiba will continue to offer optimized systems that meet customers’ diverse needs for wastewater treatment.
* UASB: Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket
One of Japan’s largest high-concentration organic wastewater treatment facilities (UASB methane fermentation, nitrification and denitrification, membrane-filtrated activated sludge, and biological desulfurization) delivered to a Hokkaido JA Shihoro potato starch plant
The example of wastewater treatment flowsheet
Nanocarbon is known as great additive which can improve strength, conductivity and heat transfer of materials such as plastic, ceramic and metal. Various applications of nanocarbon are being developed and it is expected that its demand will increase in the future.
Toshiba developed the nanocarbon production system, which apply woody biomass as raw materials. Since it uses “unused woody biomass”, this system can contribute to the reduction of CO2 by reduction of the amount of fossil resources and the revitalization of regional forestry.
This system was chosen as a “Project for creating new business utilizing forest resources” for the call of the Forest Agency of Japan. Under this project, Toshiba constructed a pilot plant in Hita City, Oita prefecture, in February 2009.
In the same time, we will also work the product development of nanocarbon that it can be provided to the market in the short time after production technology would be established.
In recent years, problems of polluted soil containing polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) have been revealing all over Japan, and technology and facilities that are enable to purify PCB-contaminated soil safely and reliably are urged to be developed.
Geosteam Corporation, which established in June 2008 and started operation in August, is the first company specializing in PCB-contaminated soil remediation in Japan. It has the largest purification facilities*1 for soil remediation which can process 11,000 ton per year. The Geosteam™ technology*2 is a soil remediation technology for degrading PCB, dioxins and residual agricultural chemicals which have been recognized by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan. The purified soil can be used as general soil. We intend to spread this business meeting the needs of market with the safe and reliable soil remediation technology and contributes to people’s life and environment.
The conventional technology for purifying groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOC) was the groundwater pumping and treatment method. This method, however, requires a long time before purification is completed, and operating costs also swell, meaning that acceleration of the purification process is the main issue at hand. As one of the solutions to this issue, Term is developing technology for purifying contaminated groundwater through bioremediation. This technology involves providing useful microorganisms living in the soil with nutrients to invigorate them, thus enabling them to dissolve pollutants. It does not require large equipment as compared to the existing method (activated charcoal adsorption) and can even be applied to plants currently in operation. It also keeps purification costs low and shortens the purification process. There are four important points to this technology: technology for evaluating biological applicability in advance, the establishment of evaluation technology through analysis of hydrogeological structure, the development of methods for injecting and spreading nutrients efficiently, and the establishment of a monitoring method for processes leading up to the completion of purification.
Currently, Term is monitoring the performance of this technology at customers’ sites in Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures, where pilot testing and the bulk of the construction work have been completed. The company continues to accumulate know-how on basic technology at the sites where it constructed purification facilities using this technology, and it is determined to produce satisfactory results in order to apply the technology to other sites in the future.
*EDC: Electron donor compounds, developed by EcoCycle Corporation
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