News
02/01/26
Viewpoint: Japanese firms to advance biocarbon projects
Viewpoint: Japanese firms to advance biocarbon projects
Singapore, 2 January (Argus) — Japanese firms are expected to accelerate
torrefied or heat-treated biomass, also known as biocarbon, fuel projects from
2026. Torrefied wood pellets have a significantly higher calorific value (CV)
compared with typical wood pellets, although the higher CV comes at a higher
price. Japanese energy company Idemitsu is set to carry out full-scale shipments
of black pellets in 2026, which are produced at its factory in Vietnam,
according to the company. The factory started commercial operations in October
2024 and has 120,000 t/yr of production capacity. The torrefied biomass fuel
will be delivered to consumers including Japanese utilities, which are planning
to begin coal and black pellet co-firing generation at thermal power plants.
Idemitsu has provided black pellet test products to around 20 customers in Japan
so far, including power producers and other industries. It is possible to
co-fire 35pc of black pellets with coal, the company said. It aims to expand its
production capacity and is considering constructing new factories in Indonesia,
Malaysia, and the US, in addition to Vietnam. Idemitsu's final target is 3mn
t/yr of total production capacity in the 2030s, using locally secured biomass
feedstocks. Idemitsu's current production capacity of black pellets is
insufficient to satisfy potential demand in the future, the company said. A
Japanese utility is planning 20pc of black pellet co-firing with coal at its
600MW unit, and another utility is considering 10pc co-firing at its 700MW unit.
These two co-firing projects will likely drive several hundreds of thousands of
tons of black pellet demand, according to market participants. Black pellets
have a higher CV than normal wood pellets. They have better water resistance and
grindability, and can be handled in a similar way to coal without major facility
renovations. But black pellets are usually more expensive than coal and typical
biomass fuels, at around double the price of wood pellets or even higher, market
participants said. Other projects A joint venture project led by construction
firm Kumagai Gumi and trading house Shinko Shoji is also planning to start
producing black bark pellets at a factory, which they are constructing in
western Japan's Ehime prefecture, in the fourth quarter of 2026. The factory is
designed to have 30,000 t/yr of production capacity, using domestically secured
bark materials. Black bark pellets have a CV of 5,000-6,000 kcal/kg, which is
close to coal. The material will be used mainly for coal and biomass co-firing
power generation in Japan. Trial products from the project have already been
tested at Japanese thermal power plants. The companies plan to build more black
bark pellet factories in Japan, each with a production capacity of 30,000 t/yr.
New factories in southeast Asia are also on the cards. The firms have already
developed test products made from Vietnamese acacia and conducted trial
co-firing combustion with coal at a Japanese thermal power plant, they said.
Steel and metals industry usage Japanese cast iron firm Aisin Takaoka started
producing biocoke from palm kernel shells (PKS) at its factory in Indonesia in
December 2025, and will start using the heat-treated biomass fuel in its cast
iron melting furnace to replace coking coal in the first quarter of 2026. The
factory, which Aisin Takaoka operates with Indonesian palm oil firm Triputra in
the country's West Kalimantan state, currently has 15,000 t/yr of production
capacity. The firm aims to increase the capacity of this biocoke project to
90,000 t/yr around 2031 with new factories. Aisin Takaoka is considering selling
around a half of the products to other companies, including automobile,
machinery manufacture, and cast iron firms. The other half will be for its own
use. The biocoke has similar CV with coking coal and could replace 100pc of
coking coal, the company said. Around 3-4t of PKS is needed to produce 1t of
biocoke. Japan's Kobe Steel (Kobelco) is planning to use black pellets in its
steelmaking process, in collaboration with cement producer Mitsubishi Ube Cement
(MUCC). The companies are expected to set up a joint venture for this project in
2026. MUCC has developed torrefaction technology to produce black pellets.
Kobelco aims to use MUCC's black pellets in steelmaking at its blast furnace in
the Kakogawa steelworks. MUCC has a production capacity of 60,000 t/yr in its
Ube factory. MUCC's black pellets have been co-fired with coal in its thermal
power plant since 2019. By Takeshi Maeda Send comments and request more
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