Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Achieves Target Purity for Ethanol at Pilot Plant

Fuel Standards Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Achieves Target Purity for Ethanol at Pilot Plant

2025-09-22 Source: Press release Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 1 min Reading Time

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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has announced that it has achieved the target performance of over 99.5 vol % ethanol purity, which meets domestic fuel standards, at a pilot plant for membrane dehydration systems installed at MHI's Nagasaki Carbon Neutral Park within the Nagasaki District Research & Innovation Center in Japan.

Pilot plant for membrane dehydration systems. (Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries) — Pilot plant for membrane dehydration systems.
(Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries)

Tokyo/Japan – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has achieved the target performance of over 99.5 vol % ethanol purity at a pilot plant for membrane dehydration systems (MMDS: Mitsubishi Membrane Dehydration System) installed at MHI's Nagasaki Carbon Neutral Park within the Nagasaki District Research & Innovation Center, which meets domestic fuel standards.

Bioethanol is gaining attention as a clean fuel alternative to gasoline and as a raw material for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). However, in order to be used as fuel, the removal of moisture contained in bioethanol during the final stage of manufacturing (dehydration) is essential, and the dehydration process consumes a significant amount of energy. MMDS aims to optimize the process by replacing the conventional method with a molecular sieve separation method (Note), thereby achieving high-efficiency manufacturing while significantly reducing energy consumption by over 30 %, leading to a substantial reduction in operational costs and stable production. Additionally, since MMDS enables separation in the liquid phase, it allows for the compact design of the equipment.

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Moving forward, based on the results of various element tests conducted at the pilot plant, MHI plans to accelerate development toward the construction of a demonstration plant for an early launch.

MHI is committed to advancing the development and commercialization of high-efficiency manufacturing processes for hydrogen-free bioethanol, a clean fuel derived from plants. Through these efforts, MHI will strive for early establishment and execution of decarbonization technologies, as a way of contributing to the realization of a sustainable, carbon neutral world.

(Note) This method utilizes the difference in molecular size to separate substances using membranes.

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