Brisk Orders for Projects to Reduce Dioxin Emissions from Incinerators
NKK is receiving increasing orders from domestic municipalities for projects to curtail dioxin emissions from waste incineration plants. Amid tightening emission controls, a growing number of municipalities are being forced to improve existing incinerators. In fiscal 1998 NKK almost tripled its order value from a year earlier to nearly ¥17 billion. Regarding dioxin regulations related to waste incinerators, Japan's Health and Welfare Ministry in January 1997 set out guidelines to determine standards for dioxin concentrations in flue gas.The emission standard for existing incinerators was set at less than 0.5~5.0 nanogram/Nm3 (1ng is one billionth of a gram), due to be fully enforced in December 2002. For now, however, as an emergency measure during a grace period, less strict standards have been granted. In undertaking dioxin reduction projects, NKK focuses primarily on remodeling the incinerator itself and adding various systems, including combustion control, rapid cooling and post-treatment processes. After diagnosing existing incinerators, NKK proposes the optimum combination of improvement measures from various options, aiming to clear the required emission concentration level. Over 100 incineration plants NKK has previously delivered have fully cleared the emission standard under the current emergency measures. In fiscal 1997, NKK received three incinerator modification project orders worth ¥6 billion in total, starting with a project from the city of Tatebayashi, north of Tokyo. In fiscal 1998, due to the receipt of two major projects, each worth over ¥4 billion, from the cities of Sendai and Kuroishi in northern Japan, the company's order value reached around ¥17 billion. With the full enforcement of permanent measures affecting existing incinerators commencing in December 2002, nearly all of the estimated 1,800 incineration plants throughout Japan will need some kind of modification. Drawing on its latest dioxin-removal and other technological merits, NKK intends to step up its sales activities centering on incineration plants the company has supplied, targeting an annual order value of ¥10 billion ~¥20 billion over the next four years. |
