Becoming the world’s most environmentally friendly paper mill: Decarbonization using gas turbine cogeneration

At the start, the consensus was, ‘Costs are critical in the paper mill business, so the power must inevitably come from coal,’ and we therefore obtained approval from the provincial government for a coal-powered CGS. However, looking 10 or 20 years into the future, we couldn’t just ignore the looming issue of global warming. One of my senior colleagues, who has a wealth of experience in the paper mill business, told me, ‘No matter what anyone says, you need to stop using coal.’ That led us to choose natural gas, which has much lower CO₂ emissions than coal, to power the new plant. The provincial government was also extremely appreciative of our decision.

During the past year, decarbonization initiatives have started to take off, mainly among non-Vietnamese companies. This means that the decision we made several years ago to switch to natural gas is now one of our plant’s biggest strengths. By adopting a CGS that creates both power and steam from natural gas, we can roughly halve our CO₂ emissions compared to our competitors in the same industry. I can say with confidence that there is no paper mill in Vietnam that is more environmentally friendly than ours.

Marubeni owns two paper mills in Japan that have introduced coal and natural gas-powered generation systems respectively. Looking at the state of the fuel market at the time the project was being considered, the energy costs to produce one ton of paper were actually not much different between the two mills.

With a coal-fired system, you need a great deal of space, because the boilers are very large and you also need space to store the coal as well as the waste ash. All in all, you need about four times more space than for a natural gas CGS. We already knew, to a certain extent, about the various advantages of a natural gas CGS, based on the performance of the Japanese plant.

Paper is so thin that it often rips or tears inside the machine during production. This ripped paper falls from under the machine into a device that melts wastepaper. That means that when the paper rips, the motor of the melting device whirrs into action, causing electricity usage to jump. The challenge for us was how to respond to such changes in energy demand in the production process. It was TTE that came up with a solution.”

Having listened to KOA’s experiences and issues, we decided that a system centered on a gas turbine, which boasts excellent responsiveness to load fluctuations coupled with relatively small space requirements, would be the best option for the paper mill. Among the various manufacturers, we chose Kawasaki, as it has a maintenance plant for gas turbines in nearby Malaysia, meaning that it could provide support for operations in Vietnam.

Given that the average outside temperature in Vietnam is 28 degrees, it’s possible to generate 6.7MW of power with each turbine, so that’s 13.4MW in total for the two turbines in this project. It’s possible to supply approximately 80 tons of steam per hour overall. A key feature of the system is its ability to balance the supply of electricity and steam required by the paper mill. In verification tests we ran together with TTE at the plant, we were able to achieve over 90% efficiency for both electricity and steam.

Hydrogen is a light, fast-burning gas that is easy to ignite. We focused on developing combustors that would enable stable combustion, and worked to build a gas turbine power generation system suited to using hydrogen as a fuel source. We think we will also need to put together proposal packages with varying hydrogen volumes, which will make it easier for customers to transition from natural gas to hydrogen.

In Vietnam, the legal and regulatory systems for hydrogen utilization are not yet fully developed. One example is that government-mandated rules on prevention of fires, etc., are unclear, which means that, more than usual, we have to confirm each and every item as we proceed. It’s something without precedent in Vietnam, so you face the difficulty of having to create rules from zero. We will continue to build facilities that can provide stable energy while meeting all the required specifications.”

There are many chemical plants here in Phu My 3 Specialized Industrial Park, some of which are actually disposing of hydrogen created in production processes as a waste product. We found out that the volume of this hydrogen would be equivalent to the volume needed to operate our gas turbine, so we are looking into how we can source our hydrogen from these nearby plants.

We have already announced to our customers that we plan on moving to hydrogen CGS, as part of our aim to become the paper mill with the lowest emissions worldwide. We must end the industrial practice of running plants on power that generates vast quantities of CO₂. KOA wants to be at the forefront of that movement.

The exciting thing about doing something no one else has done before is that although you face unique challenges, if you’re successful then you get to make the rules. I hope we can continue to partner with KOA and Kawasaki on our next challenge, making the switch to hydrogen. I want us to make preparations ahead of anyone else and share information frequently with customers so that they feel motivated to take this step. By doing so, I hope we can quickly get a system up and running that demonstrates we are ready and able to do this.

Electricity companies in Vietnam are in a tough situation financially, and are unable to invest in equipment to ensure a stable supply of electricity or in expansion to increase power supply capabilities. That’s why KOA’s investment, as a private sector company, in the creation of distributed power generation will ultimately contribute to alleviating Vietnam’s power deficit. What’s more, if those power generation systems are CO₂-free, it will be all the better for Vietnam as a whole.

One of the Vietnamese government’s pledges is to realize zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and that is something to which we are also committed. Hydrogen-powered gas turbines will be a vitally important part of realizing that commitment. If one company starts doing it, then others may also follow. If we can instigate such a trend, then we will, in a broad sense, be contributing to Vietnamese society as a whole.