Autumn 2023 EN

ENGLISH ISSUE
BIOGAS JOURNAL | AUTUMN_2023
With a height of 300 meters, Abeno Harukas is the tallest
building in Japan. It houses a biogas plant in the basement.
dustrial food waste. But this approach can come with
its challenges. Arita Hirotaka, from Dispo Co. Ltd., can
attest to that. The waste disposal company’s logo, a
prominent “I love Recycle” with a red heart, can be
spotted from far off on the white facility located on the
outskirts of Obihiro. There are garbage trucks and tankers
on the premises.
Dispo disposes of commercial waste in Obihiro and the
surrounding communities. In 2017, the company commissioned
a 150-kW biogas plant from Tsuchiya Dairy
Equipment & Systems to process organic waste. “Until
May 2022, the plant performed exceptionally well, generating
over 1,100 megawatt-hours of electrical power,
surpassing our expectations in some years,” the operations
manager explained.
“The depackers work well and the substrate can be easily
organized.” A manufacturer of potato chips and a
company that makes sweets out of red bean paste work
in the vicinity. There are also dairy plants and dairy
farms. “Going through the biogas plant is faster and
cheaper than composting the materials.”
Besides that, the waste heat heats a small greenhouse
with tomatoes and lettuce which sell well to local supermarkets,
especially in winter. Nevertheless, the feed-in
tariff for the generated electrical energy remains the
cornerstone of the plant’s financing. Therefore, the
operational disruption experienced between May and
October 2022 was all the more frustrating. “We mixed
too much whey into the substrate,” Arita Hirotaka candidly
recounted. That led to an over acidification in the
fermenter. “So, we had to empty the digester, and in
the process, we also removed 120 tons of solid residues
and covered the concrete with a plastic layer to protect
it from acid attack,” Hirotaka reflected. However,
thanks to the guaranteed feed-in tariff for 20 years, he
is confident that the plant will be profitable. The company
even plans to invest in a second one, which would
provide electrical energy for self-consumption due to
the unreliable grid connection.
Biogas Plant in a Skyscraper
Masara Komori is well acquainted with food waste in the
biogas plant. “I check the plant every day.” The head
of building technology at Japan’s tallest skyscraper,
standing at 300 meters, wears a simple tie with a grey
technician’s jacket and horn-rimmed glasses. However,
his workplace, Abeno Harukas in Downtown Osaka,
boasts several superlatives: on the lower floors, the
Kintetsu chain operates the largest department store
in Japan, spanning 100,000 square meters, including
a massive grocery section. Besides that, the building
has 50 restaurants, an art museum, a railway station
and office space in 300,000 square meters of space.
Masara Komori is one of 8,000 people working in the
building. But, contrary to everyone else, he has a key
to every door. And the engineer always knows where he
is. He hurries purposefully through the corridors of the
five basement floors, past employees who, slightly bent
forward, push rattling trolleys full of goods in front of
them, hurry to the meeting point of the cleaning crew,
or in their lime green uniforms to their workplace as
elevator operators.
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