Effective use of natural resources
Tosoh promotes the effective use of natural resources across its varied business activities. Utilizing its scale and technology, Tosoh’s Nanyo Complex makes a major contribution to achieving a recycling society. It collects waste produced on location and from households and other companies in the area and recycles it into new products.
Changing refuse into raw materials and fuel
The Nanyo Complex’s cement plant processes approximately 350,000 metric tons of refuse annually for use as raw material for cement. This includes such waste and by-products as household garbage, used tires, and industrial waste. The industrial waste comes from the operations of the Nanyo Complex and other companies.
The raw material for cement is incinerated in a kiln at the high temperature of approximately 1,500ºC to break down all toxins. This allows a wide range of materials to be substituted in producing raw material or fuel. The kiln also has a chlor-bypass system, which enables the processing of even waste with high concentrations of chloride. The bypass system removes gases and cleans chloride compounds adhered to the dust in those gases.
Tosoh recycles bromine and chlorine for use as raw materials or other applications. The Nanyo Complex has facilities for recovering chlorine and bromine from its own and externally sourced production effluents. It also has facilities to process salt by-products from ethyleneamine production and refine them into high- purity sodium chloride.
Collaboration leads to better results
The Shunan City Recycling Plaza began operation in Yamaguchi Prefecture in April 2011 and is nicknamed Pegasus. It supplies the nearby Nanyo Complex with semi-processed plastic waste collected from households for use as fuel in Tosoh’s cement plant.
It also is the scene of joint research by the city and Tosoh aimed at reducing the amount of coal used by Tosoh’s operations and the amount of carbon dioxide those operations emit. Another research theme centers on extending the useful life of landfill sites.
By recycling waste at its cement plant and implementing other measures, Tosoh pushed its total annual amount of industrial waste generated to 2,100 metric tons in fiscal 2011. This represents an 85% decline from the 14,000 metric tons produced in fiscal 1991. Our next target is to reduce our total annual industrial waste generated to less than 1,800 metric tons by the end of fiscal 2016.