Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (MCC; Tokyo; www.m-kagaku.co.jp) and Mitsui Zosen Machinery & Service, Inc. (MZM), a subsidiary of Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. have agreed to form a business tie-up to produce and sell zeolite membranes.
With the goal of entering new markets and expanding sales, MCC will purchase MZM’s entire output of zeolite membranes and hold the sole sales rights in the U.S. and other global markets. Their agreement also provides proposals for new dehydration processes that will draw upon both companies’ technologies. The main area of interest for this collaboration is the bioethanol industry in the U.S.
In bioethanol refining and water removal processes, the pressure swing adsorption (PSA) dehydration process is used following the distillation process. The PSA process uses pellet-form general-purpose zeolite to remove water. Many plants adopted the PSA process more than 10 years ago, and will need bed refurbishment in the next several years.