Japan-based Toyo Engineering Corp. announced on Sept. 2 it has been awarded a contract to construct the proposed wood pellet-fueled 75 MW Ichihara Yawatafuto Biomass Power Gogo Kaisha facility, located in Ichihara-shi, Chiba, Japan.
Toyo said the contract includes engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and commissioning services. The highly efficient biomass facility will feature a reheat system that reheats steam after it is sent through the high-pressure steam turbine and sends it to a low-pressure steam turbine for further expansion.
According to Toyo, the project marks its seventh order biomass power plants ranging in size from 50 MW to 75 MW. The Ichihara facility is expected to be complete in 2023.
Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd. announced in August that its wholly owned subsidiary, Prominent Power Co. Ltd., plans to acquire the 75 MW Ichihara Yawatafuto Biomass Power GK project and a second 50 MW biomass power plant project from an Equis Group investment fund. That transaction is expected to close in mid-September. Tokyo has previously indicated construction on the Ichihara facility is expected to begin in October 2020, with commissioning expected in January 2024.
Enviva is contracted to supply the facility with wood pellet fuel following its completion. In February 2020, the company said it had recently sighed a 20-year take-or-pay contract to deliver 270,000 tons of pellet per year to the Ichihara facility beginning in 2023.
