Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. (Yoshinobu Nakamura, President) has received an order for cogeneration boiler employing biomass fuel from Tuas Power Utilities Pte. Ltd., a subsidiary of Tuas Power Ltd., which is one of Singapore's leading power companies. The boiler will be provided to the plant of Tuas Power Utilities under an engineering /procurement/construction (EPC) contract with Marubeni Corporation. Sumitomo Heavy Industries is to supply the boilers that will constitute the core of the plant.

The boilers to be installed are of the circulation fluidized bed (CFB) type and support the use of biomass fuel of various kinds. These boilers are among the world's largest designed to burn a combination of tropical biomass* and coal, resulting in lower carbon dioxide emissions and contributing to a reduction in global warming. They will also mark Singapore's first trial of facilities using biomass. Sumitomo Heavy Industries has an overwhelming share of the Japanese domestic market for new energy boilers utilizing biomass. The favorable evaluation of these products led to the present order.

The plant where the boilers are to be installed is intended to supply steam, electric power, and industrial water to the petrochemical industrial zone of Tembusu, on Jurong Island in Singapore. In the first phase of construction one boiler will be installed, and it is expected to start operation in 2012. Plans for a second phase, in which Sumitomo Heavy Industries will supply two more boilers of the same scale, are also moving forward.

Sumitomo Heavy Industries hopes that the present order will provide an opportunity to expand sales of CFB boilers in Southeast Asian region such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. It is hoped that the market will expand to include more industrial parks of the same type as well as power plants using low-grade coal as fuel.

* Tropical biomass:
A collective term referring to a variety of plant residue such as kernel shells and bunch of palm, coconut shells, coconut husks, etc., from plantations, mainly in Southeast Asia. The boilers referenced above burn palm kernel shells.