Japanese rubber makers in project to establish carbon-neutral production site

Tokyo – A grouping* of 10 Japanese manufacturers, including Ube Elastomer Co. Ltd, Ube Material Industries Ltd and Denka Co., are to carry out a study into establishing a carbon-neutral industrial complex in Japan’s Chiba Prefecture.

The study will look into the building of the “carbon neutral Goi and Soga complex” in the Goi district of Ichihara City and the Soga District of Chiba City.

Both locations are in the Chiba Prefecture, which hosts Japan’s largest concentration of materials and energy companies.

The project, initiated last year by Yokogawa Electric Corp., will look into a broad collaboration across various industries active in the region, said Denka in a release 8 Dec.

So far, Denka said, the study has established that inter-industry collaboration would be more effective than companies working on their own in reducing CO2 emissions.

The study, it added, has found that the recovered CO2 from local industries can be more effectively utilised by companies located within this industrial complex.

The consortium has now signed a memorandum of understanding to study the commercialisation of environmental activities by the 2030, towards making the Goi and Soga complex carbon neutral by 2050.

As part of the projects, the participants aim to introduce “an inter-industry energy management system” to minimise emissions while recovering and effectively using CO2.

Furthermore, the companies will work towards reducing CO2 emissions through further use of hydrogen and other gas by-products from existing processes.

*Other companies involved in the project include Cosmo Oil Co., Iwatani Corp., JFE Steel Corp., JNC Corp., KH Neochem Co. and Maruzen Petrochemical Co., according to Denka.