Japan: Kirin starts using natural gas-burning boiler

Kirin Brewery started on February 2 to use a natural gas-burning boiler at its Sendai brewery in Miyagi Prefecture as part of its environmental protection program. According to Kyodo, the new boiler will reduce carbon dioxide emissions at the Sendai brewery by 25 percent, according to Kirin officials.

Kirin has set aside 950 million yen to finance an environmental protection program for the brewery, which also includes the use of biogas from wastewater to cover 25 percent of power requirements at the plant, starting in November. With the adoption of the new boiler, Kirin has now replaced fuel oil-based boilers with natural gas-burning ones at five of its 11 plants in Japan.

The boiler also emits no sulfur oxide while halving the discharge of nitrogen oxide.

03 February, 2006