September 02, 2008

Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (President: Yoshinobu Nakamura) received an order for Flue Gas Cleaning System (an activated carbon desulfurization and denitration facility) for sintering machinery exhaust gases from Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (TISCO) in China, with Mitsubishi Corporation as the primary contractor.

Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (TISCO) produces the largest volume of stainless steel in the world. The primary purpose for this facility is the elimination of sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulates, and dioxins. This will be the first attempt to implement a full-scale environmental facility to eliminate such a diverse range of toxic substances in China. The completion of the facility is scheduled for the spring of 2010 and the contract amount is approximately JPY 5 billion.

The most significant features of the dry activated carbon method are that it does not involve the use of water, and a diverse range of toxic substances can be eliminated simultaneously by a single facility. Other methods require separate facilities to be established for the elimination of sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Desulfurization facilities are either wet or semi-dry method, the wet method requiring a large amount of water. The semi-dry method, on the other hand, has a low desulfurization performance and requires post-treatment to process the exhaust dust. The catalyst method is the common method used for denitration facilities. These, however, require heating of the exhaust gases to a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius or higher, creating enormous operating costs. We have delivered eight dry activated carbon method facilities worldwide (with one currently being constructed), and our abundant experience and technological capabilities have been highly evaluated.

China is undergoing rapid economic development, but on the other hand, the country is falling behind environmentally. The Beijing Olympic Games focused global attention on China's environmental problems, and the country is taking this as an opportunity for serious improvement. Furthermore, a technology that minimizes the use of water is an essential requirement for regions where it is scarce. We believe that our dry activated carbon method perfectly matches the needs of the market and we expect to see an increase in demand for these environmental improvement facilities in the future.