Achievement of a Practical “Urban Biogas System”
First adopted for use in Kintetsu’s superhigh-rise complex building, “Abenobashi Terminal Building Tower (tentative name),” it reuses food waste as energy

May 13, 2010
Takenaka Corporation

Takenaka Corporation (President: Toichi Takenaka) has, in cooperation with Kobelco Eco-Solutions Co., Ltd. (President: Katsunori Aoki), and Teral Inc. (President: Hirofumi Sugata), developed the “Urban Biogas System,” which produces biogas from raw garbage (food waste) or kitchen wastewater as an energy source in complex buildings including department stores, hotels, or restaurants. This system will be operated in the “Abenobashi Terminal Building Tower (tentative name)” which Kintetsu Corporation (President: Tetsuya Kobayashi) is now constructing and aims to open in 2014.
The “Urban Biogas System” which is a system incorporated in buildings, can obtain energy from food waste, kitchen wastewater, and miscellaneous wastewater in district redevelopment projects and high-rise buildings constructed in the centers of cities. Operators of high-rise buildings in the centers of cities can now operate this biogas system to prevent bad odors, prevent fire, and provide protection from earthquakes.
In the future, Takenaka Corporation will propose the use of this system in complex buildings and redevelopment projects in the centers of cities, and also in buildings other than high-rise buildings; in shopping centers, food processing plants, and other buildings which must dispose of raw garbage and wastewater.

【Features of the system at the “Abenobashi Terminal Building Tower (tentative name)”】

▼A highly safe system, which can be operated in superhigh-rise buildings in urban districts.
It can be operated in urban districts to fight odors, prevent fires, and provide protection from earthquakes.

▼Ends the troublesome task of transporting raw garbage, producing less CO2 and cutting labor costs.
In superhigh-rise buildings, raw garbage is normally taken to the basement in elevators, stored in refrigerated storerooms, and finally loaded in trucks for delivery to waste disposal sites. All that building operators using this system do is dump the raw garbage in disposers on each floor, ending the need to transport the material by truck, cutting CO2 emissions and labor costs.

▼Decomposes kitchen wastewater and sludge from recycled wastewater treatment systems.
The system produces biogas by fermenting raw garbage plus kitchen wastewater and sludge from recycled wastewater treatment systems in a methane fermentation tank. This permits a building operator to treat these substances inside the building, ending the need to send them to an outside plant for treatment.

▼Conforms to the Food Recycling Law
Methane fermentation is a recycling method recognized under the Food Recycling Law, so building owners can satisfy the requirements of this law by introducing this system.

▼Each occupant weighs the raw garbage it produces
The raw garbage is weighed in each disposer room before it is inserted into the system, permitting the building manager to monitor the amount produced by each occupant.

【Outline of the Biogas System】

①Disposer room on each floor of the building
After weighing the raw garbage, the occupant places it in the disposer which pulverizes it, and then pumps it to the biogas system.

②Pipeline system
The pulverized raw garbage can be pumped horizontally for long distances by proprietary systems, such as pumps installed on the pipeline where necessary.

③Methane fermentation system
This system divides the raw garbage, kitchen wastewater, and sludge from the recycled water treatment system, which have been transported in the pipelines, into their solid and fluid constituents, then feeds the solid constituent into the methane fermentation tank to produce the biogas. The system treats the separated fluid constituent in compliance with sewer system discharge standards and then discharges it into the public sewer system.

④Utilization of the biogas
The biogas produced by the system is refined, mixed with City Gas, and finally utilized by gas engines, boilers and other gas consuming machinery to produce heat and electricity.

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