Japan's Hokuriku starts biomass co-firing test runs

Japan's utility Hokuriku Electric Power started coal and wood pellet co-firing test runs in April, the company said today.

Hokuriku has been conducting co-firing test runs using coal and imported wood pellets at the 700MW Tsuruga No.2 unit in Fukui prefecture since April, with the 700MW Nanao-Ohta No.2 unit in Ishikawa prefecture to follow suit.

The company also plans to increase biomass co-combustion rates at these two major coal-fired power plants to 15pc by the April 2030-March 2031 fiscal year, which means a total of 210MW of capacity and 1.5mn MWh/yr of output based on biomass-fired generation.

Hokuriku expects its increased biomass co-firing rates to reduce CO2 emissions by 1mn t/yr compared with emissions from coal-firing for the same output, although it did not disclose the volume of wood pellets that will be burned. The company has been co-firing with coal and domestically-produced wood chips at Tsuruga since 2007 and at Nanao-Ohta since 2010, but its total biomass ratio was under 1pc.

By Takeshi Maeda